f    ■    -r  .- 


Th. 


/5 


A^. 


Mysteries  of  Mithra 


By 

FRANZ^fcuMONT 

PROFESSOR    IN    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF   GHENT,    BELGIUM 


Translated  from  the  Second  Revised  French  Editiofi 

BY 

THOMAS  J.  McCORMACK 

PRINCIPAL    OF    THE    LA    SALLE    AND     PERU    TOWNSHIP     HIGH     SCHOOL 


With  a  Frontispiece,  Map,  and  Fifty  Cuts  and  Illustrations 


CHICAGO 
The  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

LONDON 

KEGAN  PAUL,  TRENCH,  TRUBNER  &  CO..  Ltd. 

1903 


TRANSLATION  COPYRIGHTED 

BY 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

CHICAGO 

1903 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FRENCH  EDITION 

THE  present  work,  in  which  we  purpose  to  treat 
of  the  origin  and  history  of  the  Mithraic 
religion,  does  not  pretend  to  offer  a  picture  of  the 
downfall  of  paganism.  We  shall  not  attempt,  even 
in  a  general  way,  to  seek  for  the  causes  which 
explain  the  establishment  of  the  Oriental  religions 
in  Italy;  nor  shall  we  endeavor  to  show  how  their 
doctrines,  which  were  far  more  active  as  fermenting 
agents  than  the  theories  of  the  philosophers,  decom- 
posed the  national  beliefs  on  which  the  Roman 
state  and  the  entire  life  of  antiquity  rested,  and 
how  the  destruction  of  the  edifice  which  they  had 
disintegrated  was  ultimately  accomplished  by  Chris- 
tianity. We  shall  not  undertake  to  trace  here  the 
various  phases  of  the  battle  waged  between  idol- 
atry and  the  growing  Church;  this  vast  subject, 
which  we  hope  some  day  to  approach,  lies  beyond 
the  scope  of  the  present  work.  We  are  concerned 
here  with  one  epoch  only  of  this  decisive  revolu- 
tion, it  being  our  purpose  to  show  with  all  the 
distinctness  in  our  power  how  and  why  a  certain 
Mazdean  sect  failed  under  the  Caesars  to  become 
the  dominant  religion  of  the  empire. 

The  civilization  of  the  Greeks  had  never  suc- 
ceeded in  establishing  itself  among  the  Persians,  and 
the  Romans  were  no  more  successful  in  subjecting 
the  Parthians  to  their  sway.  The  significant  fact 
which  dominates  the  entire  history  of  Hither  Asia 
is  that  the  Iranian  world  and  the  Graeco-Latin  world 

III 


IV  PREFACE    TO    THE    FRENCH    EDITION 

remained  forever  unamenable  to  reciprocal  assimi- 
lation, forever  sundered  as  much  by  a  mutual  repul- 
sion, deep  and  instinctive,  as  by  their  hereditary 
hostility. 

Nevertheless,  the  religion  of  the  Magi,  which 
was  the  highest  blossom  of  the  genius  of  Iran, 
exercised  a  deep  influence  on  Occidental  culture  at 
three  different  periods.  In  the  first  place,  Parsee- 
ism  had  made  a  very  distinct  impression  on  Judaism 
in  its  formative  stage,  and  several  of  its  cardinal 
doctrines  were  disseminated  by  Jewish  colonists 
throughout  the  entire  basin  of  the  Mediterranean, 
and  subsequently  even  forced  themselves  on  ortho- 
dox Catholicism. 

The  influence  of  Mazdaism  on  European  thought 
was  still  more  direct,  when  Asia  Minor  was  con- 
quered by  the  Romans.  Here,  from  time  imme- 
morial, colonies  of  Magi  who  had  migrated  from 
Babylon  lived  in  obscurity,  and,  welding  together 
their  traditional  beliefs  and  the  doctrines  of  the 
Grecian  thinkers,  had  elaborated  little  by  little  in 
these  barbaric  regions  a  religion  original  despite  its 
complexity.  At  the  beginning  of  our  era,  we  see 
this  religion  suddenly  emerging  from  the  darkness, 
and  pressing  forward,  rapidly  and  simultaneously, 
into  the  valleys  of  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine,  and 
even  into  the  heart  of  Italy.  The  nations  of  the 
Occident  felt  vividly  the  superiority  of  the  Mazdean 
faith  over  their  ancient  national  creeds,  and  the 
populace  thronged  to  the  altars  of  the  exotic  god. 
But  the  progress  of  the  conquering  religion  was 
checked  when  it  came  in  contact  with  Christianity. 
The  two  adversaries  discovered  with  amazement, 
but  with  no   inkling  of  their  origin,  the   similarities 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FRENCH  EDITION         V 

which  united  them;  and  they  severally  accused  the 
Spirit  of  Deception  of  having  endeavored  to  carica- 
ture the  sacredness  of  their  religious  rites.  The 
conflict  between  the  two  was  inevitable, — a  ferocious 
and  implacable  duel:  for  the  stake  was  the  dominion 
of  the  worldj  No  one  has  told  the  tale  of  its  chang- 
ing fortunes,  and  our  imagination  alone  is  left  to 
picture  the  forgotten  dramas  that  agitated  the  souls 
of  the  multitudes  when  they  were  called  upon  to 
choose  between  Ormadz  and  the  Trinity.  We  know 
the  result  of  the  battle  only:  Mithraism  was  van- 
quished, as  without  doubt  it  should  have  been.  The 
defeat  which  it  suffered  was  not  due  entirely  to  the 
superiority  of  the  evangelical  ethics,  nor  to  that  of 
the  apostolic  doctrine  regarding  the  teaching  of  the 
Mysteries;  it  perished,  not  only  because  it  was 
encumbered  with  the  onerous  heritage  of  a  superan- 
nuated past,  but  also  because  2ts__HUirgy  and  its 
theology  had  retained  too  mu^h^of  its  Asiatic  coLpr- 

ing     to     be     arr:ppf-fjj__h\^    ■th£_L,a<-in     t;nirif     \YJfhniit 

— s : — -"""tT 

repugnance.     Tor    a    converse    reason,     the     same 

battle,  waged  in  the  same  epoch  in  Persia  between 

these  same  two  rivals,  was  without  success,  if  not 

without  honor,  for  the  Christians;  and  in  the  realms 

of  the  Sassanids,  Zoroastrianism  never  once  was  in 

serious  danger  of  being  overthrown^ 

The  defeat  of  Mithraism  did  not,  however,  utterly 

annihilate  its  power.      It  had  prepared  the  minds 

of  the  Occident  for  the  reception  of  a  new  faith, 

which,  like  itself,  came  also  from  the  banks  of  the 

Euphrates,     and     which     resumed    hostilities    with 

entirely   different    tactics,       Manichaeism  appeared 

as  its  successor  and  continuator.     This  was  the  final 

assault  made  by  Persia  on  the  Occident, — an  assault 


VI  PREFACE    TO    THE    FRENCH    EDITION 

more  sanguinary  than  the  preceding,  but  one  which 
was  ultimately  destined  to  be  repulsed  by  the  pow- 
erful resistance  offered  to  it  by  the  Christian  empire. 
*  *  *  *  * 

The  foregoing  rapid  sketch  will,  I  hope,  give 
some  idea  of  the  great  importance  which  the  his- 
tory of  Mithraism  possesses.  A  branch  torn  from 
the  ancient  Mazdean  trunk,  it  has  preserved  in 
many  respects  the  characteristics  of  the  ancient 
worship  of  the  Iranian  tribes;  and  it  will  enable  us 
by  comparison  to  understand  the  extent,  so  much 
disputed,  of  the  Avestan  reformation.  Again,  if  it 
has  not  inspired,  it  has  at  least  contributed  to  give 
precise  form  to,  certain  doctrines  of  the  Church, 
as  the  ideas  relative  to  the  powers  of  hell  and  to 
the  end  of  the  world.  And  thus  both  its  rise  and 
its  decadence  combine  in  explaining  to  us  the 
formation  of  two  great  religions.  In  the  heyday  of 
its  vigor,  it  exercised  no  less  remarkable  an  influ- 
ence on  the  society  and  government  of  Rome. 
Never,  perhaps,  not  even  in  the  epoch  of  the  Mus- 
sulman invasion,  was  Europe  in  greater  danger  of 
being  Asiaticized  than  in  the  third  century  of  our 
era,  and  there  was  a  moment  in  this  period  when 
Caesarism  was  apparently  on  the  point  of  being 
transformed  into  a  Caliphate.  The  resemblances 
which  the  court  of  Diocletian  bore  to  that  of  Chos- 
roes  have  been  frequently  emphasized.  ^It  was  the 
worship  of  the  sun,  and  in  particular  the  Mazdean 
theories,  that  disseminated  the  ideas  upon  which 
the  deified  sovereigns  of  the  West  endeavored  to 
rear  their  monarchical  absolutismj  The  rapid  spread 
of  the  Persian  Mysteries  among  all  classes  of  the 
population  served  admirably  the  political  ambitions 


PREFACE    TO    THE    FRENCH    EDITION  VII 

of  the  emperors.  A  sudden  inundation  of  Iranian 
and  Semitic  conceptions  swept  over  the  Occident, 
threatening  to  submerge  everything  that  the  genius 
of  Greece  and  Rome  had  so  laboriously  erected, 
and  when  the  flood  subsided  it  left  behind  in  the 
conscience  of  the  people  a  deep  sediment  of  Ori- 
ental beliefs,  which  have  never  been  completely 
obliterated. 

I  believe  I  have  said  sufficient  to  show  that  the 
subject  of  which  I  am  about  to  treat  is  deserving  of 
exhaustive  and  profound  study.  Although  my 
investigations  have  carried  me,  on  many  sides, 
much  farther  than  I  had  at  the  outset  intended  to 
go,  I  still  do  not  regret  the  years  of  labor  and  of 
travel  which  they  have  caused  me.  The  work  which 
I  have  undertaken  could  not  have  been  other  than 
difficult.  On  the  one  hand,  we  do  not  know  to  what 
precise  degree  the  Avesta  and  the  other  sacred 
books  ,  of  the  Parsees  represent  the  ideas  of  the 
Mazdeans  of  the  Occident;  on  the  other,  these 
books  constitute  the  sole  material  in  our  possession 
for  interpreting  the  great  mass  of  figured  monu- 
ments which  have  gradually  been  collected.  The 
inscriptions  by  themselves  are  always  a  sure  guide, 
but  their  contents  are  upon  the  whole  very  meager. 
Our  predicament  is  somewhat  similar  to  that  in 
which  we  should  find  ourselves  if  we  were  called 
upon  to  write  the  history  of  the  Church  of  the 
Middle  Ages  with  no  other  sources  at  our  command 
than  the  Hebrew  Bible  and  the  sculptured  debi'is  of 
Roman  and  Gothic  portals.  (For  this  reason,  our 
explanations  of  the  Mithraic  imagery  will  frequently 
possess  nothing  more  than  a  greater  or  less  degree 
of   probabilityJ     I    make  no  pretension   to  having 


VIII  PREFACE    TO    THE    FRENCH    EDITION 

reached  in  all  cases  a  rigorously  exact  decipherment 
of  these  hieroglyphics,  and  I  am  anxious  to  ascribe 
to  my  opinions  nothing  but  the  value  of  the  argu- 
ments which  support  them.  I  hope  nevertheless  to 
have  established  with  certainty  the  general  signifi- 
cation of  the  sacred  images  which  adorned  the 
Mithraic  crypts.  On  the  details  of  their  recondite 
symbolism  it  is  difficult  to  throw  much  light.  We 
are  frequently  forced  to  take  refuge  here  in  the  ars 
nesciejidi. 

The  following  pages  reproduce  the  "Conclusions" 
printed  at  the  end  of  the  first  volume  of  my  large 
work,  Tcxtes  ct  7nomimc7its  figures  rclatifs  aux  7nystcrcs 
de  Mithra  (Brussels:  H.  Lamertin).*  Stripped  of 
the  notes  and  references  which  there  served  to 
establish  them,  they  are  confined  to  epitomizing  and 
co-ordinating  the  sum-total  of  the  knowledge  we 
possess  concerning  the  origin  and  the  characteristic 
features  of  the  Mithraic  religion.  They  will  fur- 
nish, in  fact,  all  the  material  necessary  for  read- 
ers desirous  of  general  information  on  this  subject. 
To  impart  the  same  solidity  to  all  the  various  por- 
tions of  the  edifice  we  have  been  reconstructing  has 
been  impossible.  The  uncertainties  and  discontinu- 
ity of  the  tradition  do  not  permit  this.  Persons 
desirous  of  examining  the  stability  of  the  founda- 
tions upon  which  my  expositions  rest,  should  consult 
the  critical  discussions  of  the  "Introduction"  to  my 
larger  work,  the  purpose  of  which   is  to    ascertain 

*  Large  octavo,  931  pages,  507  illustratious  and  g  photo- 
gravure plates.  This  work,  which  is  a  monument  of  scholarship 
and  industry,  is  a  complete  descriptive  and  critical  collection 
of  all  the  Mithraic  texts,  inscriptions,  references,  and  monu- 
ments that  have  been  recovered  from  antiquity. — T.  J.  McC. 


PREFACE    TO    THE    FRENCH    EDITION  IX 

the  meaning  and  value  of  the  written  documents, 
and  especially  of  the  figured  monuments,  there 
described. 

During  the  long  period  in  which  this  work  has  been 
in  preparation  I  have  been  frequently  obliged  to 
resort  to  that  community  of  interest  and  sentiment 
which  unites  men  of  science  throughout  the  world, 
and  I  may  say  I  have  rarely  appealed  to  it  in  vain. 
The  courtesy  of  devoted  friends,  several  of  whom  are 
now  no  more,  has  often  anticipated  the  expression 
of  my  wishes,  and  has  spontaneously  placed  at  my 
disposal  things  which  I  could  scarcely  have  dared 
to  request.  I  have  endeavored  in  my  large  work  to 
make  due  acknowledgment  to  each  one  of  them.  It 
would  not  be  fitting  to  give  in  this  place  a  mere 
mechanical  list  of  the  names  of  my  collaborators, 
and  by  bestowing  upon  them  commonplace  thanks 
to  appear  in  the  light  of  cancelling  the  indebtedness 
which  I  owe  them.  But  it  is  with  a  feeling  of  pro- 
found gratitude  that  I  recall  to  mind  the  services 
which  have  been  lavished  upon  me,  and  that,  having 
now  reached  the  end  of  my  task,  after  more  than 
ten  years,  I  still  think  of  all  who  have  aided  me  in 
completing  it. 

The  first  edition  of  the  present  work  appeared 
in  igoo,  and  a  second  was  called  for  not  long  after- 
wards. Few  changes  have  been  made.  We  have 
added  a  few  notes,  made  a  few  references  to  recent 
articles,  and  adorned  the  pages  with  a  considerable 
number  of  illustrations.*  The  most  important  addi- 
tion  is   the   chapter  on    Mithraic   sculpture,  which, 

*  The  illustrations  of  the  French  edition  numbered  twenty- 
two.  The  present  English  edition  contains  more  than  double 
that  number.— T.  J.  McC. 


X  PREFACE    TO    THE    FRENCH    EDITION 

in  view  of  the  extensive  researches  now  being 
made  as  to  the  Oriental  origins  of  Roman  art,  can- 
not fail  to  be  of  interest. 

We  have  also  to  thank  the  many  critics  who  have 
so  kindly  reviewed  our  Mysteries  of  Mithra^  and  have 
generously  acknowledged  that  our  reconstruction  of 
this  vanished  creed  rests  upon  an  objective  and 
complete  interpretation  of  the  sources.  In  a  matter 
which  is  still  so  obscure,  it  was  inevitable  that 
certain  divergences  of  opinion  should  have  come  to 
light,  and  our  conclusions,  at  times  bold,  may,  in 
certain  points,  have  appeared  to  some  erroneous. 
We  have  had  regard  for  these  expressions  of  doubt  in 
our  revision.  If  we  have  not  always  felt  obliged  to 
modify  our  opinion,  it  is  not  because  we  have  not 
weighed  the  arguments  of  our  critics,  but  because  in 
so  small  a  volume  as  the  present,  from  which  all 
discussions  mustbe  excluded,  we  had  not  the  space  to 
substantiate  our  conclusions.  It  is  a  delicate  matter, 
we  grant,  to  publish  a  text  without  the  notes  which 
support,  explain,  and  modify  it;  but  we  trust  that 
the  reader  will  not  feel  too  keenly  this  inevitable 
omission. 

Franz  Cumont. 

Ghent,  May  ist,  igo2. 


Table  of  Contents 

PAGE 

Preface  to  the  French  Edition         .         .         .     iii 
The  Origins  of  Mithraism      ....  i 

The  Dissemination  of  Mithraism  in  the  Roman 

Empire      .....••     33 
mithra  and  the  imperial  power  of  rome    .         86 
The  Doctrine  of  the  Mithraic  Mysteries       .    104    \ 
The  Mithraic  Liturgy,  Clergy  and   Devotees  150    / 
Mithraism   and  the    Religions  of  the   Empire  175    ^ 

Mithraic  Art 209 

Index 229 


List  6y^  Illustrations 


Ft-ontispiccc.     Bas-relief  of  Aquileia. 

FIGURE 

1.  King  Antiochus  and  Mithra.     Bas-relief  of  Nemrood  Dagh 

2.  Imperial  Coins  of  Trapezus  (Trebizond)      .         .         .         . 

3.  Bactrian  Coins  ........ 

4.  Tauroctonous,   or  Bull-slaying,  Mithra.     Typical   Repre- 

sentation.      (Borghesi    Bas-relief   from    the    Capitol. 
Now  in  the  Louvre)       ....... 

5.  Tauroctonous    INIithra.     Artistic  Type.     (St.   Petersburg) 

6.  Tauroctonous  Mithra.     Artistic  Type.     (Vatican) 

7.  Tauroctonous  Mithra.     Early  Artistic  Type.     (Boston) 

8.  King  Antiochus   and  Ahura-Mazda.     Bas-relief  of  Nem- 

rood Dagh      ....... 

9.  Mithraic  Medallion  from  Tarsus,  Cilicia 

10.  Tauroctonous  Mithra.     (British  Museum)   - 

11.  Sun-God.     Fragment  of  the  Bas-relief  of  Virunum 

12.  Bas-relief  of  Osterburken 

13.  Plan  of  the  Mithrseum  of  Heddernheim 

14.  Reverse  of  the  Bas-relief  of  Heddernheim 

15.  Bas-relief  of  Neuenheim 

16.  Plan  of  a  Mithrgeum  in  Ostia 

17.  Silvanus 

18.  Statues  of  Torch-bearers.     (Lateran) 

19.  Pedestal  Found  at  Carnuntum 

20.  Mithraic  Kronos  Found  in  Ostia 

21.  Mithraic  Kronos  of  Florence  . 

22.  Mithraic  Kronos  of  Rome     .... 

23.  Mithraic  Kronos  Found  in  Ostia 

24.  Fragment  of  a  Bas-relief  Found  in  Virunum 

25.  Bas-relief  of  Heddernheim 

26.  Bas-relief  of  London      .... 

27.  Mithraic  Cameo         ..... 

28.  Mithraic  Cameo,  Showing  Mithra  and  the  Dioscuri 

29.  Statues  of  Torch-bearers.     (Palermo) 

30.  Mithra  Born  from  the  Rock  ... 

xiii 


( Klagenf 


uit) 


14 

18 

19 


21 

22 
23 
24 

27 

32 

39 

50 

51 

53 

54 

55 

65 

66 

68 

88 

105 

106 

108 

no 

"3 

117 

122 

123 

124 

1 23 

130 


XIV  LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE  PAGE 

31.  Mithra  Born  from  the  Rock 131 

32.  Fragment  of  Bas-relief  of  Virunum      .....  133 

33.  Tauroctonous  and  Taurophorous   (Bull-bearing)   Mithra. 

Clay  Cup  of  Lanuvium     .         .         .         .         .         .         134 

34.  Two  Bronze  Mithraic  Plaques.     (Vatican)  .         .         .   136 

35.  Bas-relief  of  Apulum i3g 

36.  Inscription  to  Mithra  Nabarze.     (Sarmizegetusa)       .         .  142 

37.  Tauroctonous  Mithra.     Bas-relief  of  Bologna       .  .         151 

38.  Mithraic  Communion.     Bas-relief  of  Konjica      .         .         .  159 

39.  Restoration  of  a  M  it hrseum  at  Carnuntum     .         .         .        163 

40.  Tauroctonous  Mithra  of  Toronto 176 

41.  Mithraic  Gems.     (Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York 

City) 183 

42.  Mithraic  Cameo 185 

43.  Sol,  the  Sun-God 186 

44.  The  Passion  of   the  God.     Head  of  the  So-called  Dying 

Alexander  of  the  Uffizi  Gallery    .....   192 

45.  Bas-relief  of  Mayence.     Mithra  Drawing  His  Bow        .         196 

46.  Chained  Skeleton  Discovered  at  Saarebourg       .         .         .   204 

47.  Mithraic  Dadophorus.     Wrongly  Restored  as  Paris       .        212 

48.  Counterpart  of  the  Preceding       ...  .         .  213 

49.  Mithraic  Kronos  of  Modena 222 

50.  Birth  of  Erichthonios.     Greek  Vase 225 


THE  MYSTERIES  OF  MITHRA 

THE  ORIGINS  OF  MITHRAISM 

IN  THAT  unknown  epoch  when  the  ances- 
tors of  the  Persians  were  still  united  with 
those  of  the  Hindus,  they  were  already  wor- 
shippers of  Mithra.  The  hymns  of  the  Vedas 
celebrated  his  name,  as  did  those  of  the 
Avesta,  and  despite  the  differences  obtaining 
between  the  two  theological  systems  of  which 
these  books  were  the  expression,  tli^Vedic 
Mitra  and  the  Iranian  Mithra  have  preserved 
i/so  many  traits  of  resemblance  that  it  is  impos- 
sible to  entertain  any  doubt  concerning  their 
common  origin.  Both  religions  saw  in  him  a 
Vgod  of  light,  invoked  togetHer'with  Heaven, 
bearing  in  the  one  case  the  name  of  Varuna 
and  in  the  other  that  of  Ahura;  in  ethics  he 
was  recognized  _as^e^  protector  of  truth,  the 
'antagonist  of  falsehood  and  error.  But  the 
sacred  poetry  of  India  has  preserved  of  him  an 
s/  obscured  memory  only.  A  single  fragment, 
and  even  that  partially  effaced,  is  all  that 
has  been  specially  dedicated  to  him.  He 
appears  mainly  in  incidental  allusions, —  the 
silent  witnesses  of  his  ancient  grandeur.  Still, 
though   his  physiognomy  is  not  so  distinctly 


2  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

limned  in  the  Sanskrit  literature  as  it  is  in  the 
Zend  writings,  the  faintness  of  its  outlines  is 
not  sufficient  to  disguise  the  primitive  identity 
of  his  character. 

According  to  a  recent  theory,  this  god,  with 
whom  the  peoples  of  Europe  were  unac- 
quainted, was  not  a  member  of  the  ancient 
Aryan  pantheon.  Mitra-Varuna,  and  the  five 
other  Adityas  celebrated  by  the  Vedas,  like- 
wise Mithra-Ahura  and  the  Amshaspands,  who, 
according  to  the  Avestan  conception  surround 
the  Creator,  are  on  this  theory  nothing  but  the 
sun,  the  moon,  and  the  planets,  the  worship 
of  which  was  adopted  by  the  Indo-Iranians 
"from  a  neighboring  people,  their  superiors 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  starry  firmament," 
who  could  be  none  other  than  the  Accadian  or 
Semitic  inhabitants  of  Babylonia.*  But  this 
hypothetical  adoption,  if  it  really  took  place, 
must  have  occurred  in  a  i)rehistoric  epoch, 
and,  without  attempting  to  dissipate  the  ob- 
scurity of  these  primitive  times,  it  will  be 
sufficient  for  us  to  state  that  The  tribes  of  Iran 
never  ceased  to  worship  Mithra  from  their 
first  assumption  of  worldly  power  till  the  day 
of  their  conversion  to  Islamj 

In  the  Avesta,  Mithra  is  the  genius  of  the 
celestial  light.  He  appears  before  sunrise  on 
the  rocky  summits  of  the  mountains;  during 
the  day  he  traverses  the  wide  firmament  in  his 
chariot  drawn  by  four  white  horses,  and  when 

♦Oldenberg,  Die  Religion  des  Veda,  1894,  p.  185. 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  3 

night  falls  he  still  illumines  with  flickering 
glow  the  surface  of  the  earth,  "ever  waking, 
ever  watchful."  He  is  neither  sun,  nor  moon, 
nor  stars,  but  with  "his  hundred  ears  and  his 
hundred  eyes"  watches  constantly  the  world. 
Mithra  hears  all,  sees  all,  knows  all:  none  can 

'deceive  him.  By^a^^jiatural  transiTion~he  be- 
came  for  ethics  the  god  of  truth  and  integ- 
rity, the  one  that  was  invoked  in  solemn  oaths, 

"that  pledged  the  fulfilment  of  contracts,  that 
punished  perjurers! 

The  light  that  dissipates  darkness  restores 
happiness  and  life  on  earth;  the  heat  that 
accompanies  it  fecundates  nature.  Mithra  is 
"the  lord  of  wide  pastures,"  the  one  that  ren- 
ders them  fertile.  "He  giveTTT  increase,  he 
giveth  abundance,  he  gfveth  cattle,  he  giveth 
progeny  and  life."  He  scatters  the  waters  of 
the  heavens  and  causes  the  plants  to  spring 
forth  from  the  ground;  on  them  that  honor 
him,  he  bestows  health  of  body,  abundance 
of  riches,  and  talented  posterity.  For  he  is 
the  dispenser  not  only  of  material  blessings 
but  of  spiritual  advantages  as  well.  His  is  the 
beneficent  genius  that  accords  peace  of  con- 
science, wisdom,  and  honor  along  with  pros- 
perity, and  causes  harmony  to  reign  among  all 
his  votaries.  The  devas,  who  inhabit  the 
places  of  darkness,  disseminate  on  earth  along 
with  barrenness  and  suffering  all  manner  of 
vice  and  impurity.  Mithra,  "wakeful  and  sleep- 
less, protects  the  creation  of  Mazda"  against 


^^ 


4  THE    MYSTERIES    OF   MITHRA 

their  machinations.  He  combats  unceasingly 
the  spirits  of  evil;  an^  the  iniquitous  that 
serve  them  feel  also  the  terrible  visitations  of 
his  wrath.  From  his  celestial  eyrie  he  spies 
out  his  enemies;  armed  in  fullest  panoply  he 
swoops  down  upon  them,  scatters  and  slaugh- 
ters them.  He  desolates  and  lays  waste  the 
homes  of  the  wicked,  he  annihilates  the  tribes 
and  the  nations  that  are  hostile  to  him.  On 
the  other  hand  he  is  the  puissant  ally  of  the 
faithful  in  their  warlike  expeditions.  The 
blows  of  their  enemies  "miss  their  mark,  for 
Mithra,  sore  incensed,  receives  them";  and 
he  assures  victory  unto  them  that  "have  had 
fit  instruction  in  the  Good,  that  honor  him 
and  offer  him  the  sacrificial  libations."* 

This  character  of  god  of  hosts,  which  has 
been  the  predominating  trait  of  Mithra  from 
the  days  of  the  Achaemenides,  undoubtedly 
became  accentuated  in  the  period  of  confusion 
during  which  the  Iranian  tribes  were  still  at 
war  with  one  another;  but  it  is  after  all  only 
the  development  of  the  ancient  conception  of 
struggle  between  day  and  night.  In  general, 
the  picture  that  the  Avesta  offers  us  of  the 
old  Aryan  deity,  is,  as  we  have  already  said, 
similar  to  that  which  the  Vedas  have  drawn 
in  less  marked  outlines,  and  it  hence  follows 
that  Mazdaism  left  its  main  primitive  founda- 
tion unaltered. 

Still,  though  the  Avestan  hymns  furnish  the 

*^  Zend-Avesta,  Yasht,  'K.,  passz'tn. 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  5 

distinctest  glimpses  of  the  true  physiognomy 
of  the  ancient  god  of  light,  the  Zoroastrian 
system,  in  adopting  his  worship,  has  singularly 
lessened  his  importance.  As  the  price  of  his 
admission  to  the  Avestan  Heaven,  he  was 
compelled  to  submit  to  its  laws.  Theology 
had  placed  Ahura-Mazda  on  the  pinnacle  of 
the  celestial  hierarchy,  and  thenceforward  it 
could  recognize  none  as  his  peer.  Mithra  was 
not  even  made  one  of  the  six  Amshaspands 
that  aided  the  Supreme  Deity  in  governing 
the  universe.  He  was  relegated,  with  the 
majority  of  the  ancient  divinities  of  nature,  to 
the  host  of  lesser  genii  or  yazatas  created  by 
Mazda.  He  was  associated  with  some  of  the 
deified  abstractions  which  the  Persians  had 
learned  to  worship.  As  protector  of  warriors, 
he  received  for  his  companion,  Verethraghna, 
or  Victory;  as  the  defender  of  the  truth,  he 
was  associated  with  the  pious  Sraosha,  or 
Obedience  to  divine  law,  with  Rashnu,  Justice, 
with  Arshtat,  Rectitude.  As  the  tutelar  gen- 
ius of  prosperity,  he  is  invoked  with  Ashi- 
Vafiuhi,  Riches,  and  wnth  Pareildi,  Abundance. 
In  company  with  Sraosha  and  Rashnu,  he 
protects  the  soul  of  the  just  against  the 
demons  that  seek  to  drag  it  down  to  Hell,  and 
under  their  guardianship  it  soars  aloft  to  Par- 
adise. This  Iranian  belief  gave  birth  to  the 
doctrine  of  redemption  by  Mithra,  which  we 
find  developed  in  the  Oeeident. 

At  the  same  time,  his  cult  was  subjected  to 


O  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

a  rigorous  ceremonial,  conforming  to  the 
Mazdean  liturgy.  Sacrificial  offerings  were 
made  to  him  of  "small  cattle  and  large,  and  of 
flying  birds."  These  immolations  were  pre- 
ceded or  accompanied  with  the  usual  libations 
of  the  juice  of  Haoma,  and  with  the  recitation 
of  ritual  prayers, — the  bundle  of  sacred  twigs 
{barcsman^  always  in  the  hand.  But  before 
daring  to  approach  the  altar,  the  votary  was 
obliged  to  purify  himself  by  repeated  ablutions 
and  fiagellations.  These  rigorous  prescrip- 
tions recall  the  rite  of  baptism  and  the  cor- 
poreal tests  imposed  on  the  Roman  neophytes 
before  initiation. 

Mithra,  thus,  was  adopted  in  the  theological 
system  of  Zoroastrianism;  a  convenient  place 
was  assigned  to  him  in  the  divine  hierarchy; 
he  was  associated  with  companions  of  unim- 
peachable orthodoxy;  homage  was  rendered 
to  him  on  the  same  footing  with  the  other 
genii.  But  his  puissant  personality  had  not 
bent  lightly  to  the  rigorous  restrictions  that 
had  been  imposed  upon  him,  and  there  are  to 
be  found  in  the  sacred  text  vestiges  of  a  more 
ancient  conception,  according  to  which  he 
occupied  in  the  Iranian  pantheon  a  much 
more  elevated  position.  Several  times  he  is 
invoked  in  company  with  Ahura:  the  two  gods 
form  a  pair,  for  the  light  of  Heaven  and 
Heaven  itself  are  in  their  nature  inseparable. 
Furthermore,  if  it  is  said  that  Ahura  created 
Mithra  as  he  did  all  things,  it  is  likewise  said 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  7 

that  he  made  him  just  as  great  and  worthy  as 
himself.  Mithra  is  indeed  a  yazata,  but  he  is 
also  the  most  potent  and  most  glorious  of  the 
yazatas.  "Ahura-Mazda  established  him  to 
maintain  and  watch  over  all  this  moving 
world."  *  It  is  through  the  agency  of  this 
ever-victorious  warrior  that  the  Supreme 
Being  destroys  the  demons  and  causes  even 
the  Spirit  of  Evil,  Ahriman  himself,  to  tremble. 
Compare  these  texts  w^ith  the  celebrated 
passage  in  which  Plutarchf  expounds  the  dual- 
istic  doctrine  of  the  Persians:  Oromazes 
dwells  in  the  domain  of  eternal  light  "as  far 
above  the  sun  as  the  sun  is  distant  from  the 
v/  earth" 5  Ahriman  reigns  in  the  realm  of  dark- 
(^  ness,  and  Mithra  occupies  an  intermediary 
place  between  them.  The  beginning  of  the 
Bundahisht  expounds  a  quite  similar  theory, 
save  that  in  place  of  Mithra  it  is  the  air 
{Vayii)  that  is  placed  between  Ormazd  and 
Ahriman.  The  contradiction  is  only  one  of 
terms,  for  according  to  Iranian  ideas  the  air 
is  indissokibly  conjoined  with  the  light,  which 
it  is  thought  to  support.  In  fine,  a  supreme^, 
god,  enthroned  in  the  empyrean  above  the! 
stars,  where  a  perpetual  serenity  exists;  below 
him  an  active  deity,  his  emissary  and  chief  of 
the  celestial  armies  in  their  ceaseless  combat 

*Yasht,  X.,   103. 

f  Plutarch,  Dc  Iside  et  Osiridc,  46-47  ;  Textes  ct  ni07iU7ncnis, 
Vol.   II.,  p.  33. 

:I;West,  Pahlavi^  T,-  rf  <• ,  I.  (also,  Sacred  Books  of  the  East, 
v.),  1S80,  p.  3,  et  seq?^^ 


8  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

^with  the  Spirit  of    Darkness,  who  from    the 

bowels  of  Hell  sends   forth   his  devas  to  the 

surface  of  the  earth,— this  is  the  religious  con- 

\  caption,  far  simpler  than  that  of  Zoroastrianism, 

'  which  appears  to  have  been  generally  accepted 

among  the  subjects  of  the  Achgemenides^ 

The  coiispicuous  role  that  the  religion  of 
the  ancient  Persians  accorded  to  MJthra  is 
attested  by  a  multitude  of  proofs. <fle  alone, 
with  the  goddess  Anahita,  is  invokeH'in  the 
inscriptions  of  Artaxerxes  alongside  of  Ahura- 
Mazda.  The  "great  kings"  were  certainly 
very  closely  attached  to  him,  and  looked  upon 
him  as  their  special  protector.  It  is  he  whom 
they  call  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth  of  their 
words,  and  whom  they  invoke  on  the  eve  of 
battle.  They  unquestionably  regarded  him  as 
the  god  that  brought  victory  to  monarchs;  he 
it  was,  they  thought,  who  caused  that  mysteri- 
ous light  to  descend  upon  them  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  Mazdean  belief,  is  a  guaranty  of 
perpetual  success  to  princes,  whose  authority 
it  consecrates. 

The  nobility  followed  the  example  of  the 
sovereign.  The  great  number  of  theophorous, 
or  god-bearing,  names,  compounded  with  that 
of  Mithra,  which  were  borne  by  their  members 
from  remotest  antiquity,  is  proof  of  the  fact 
that  the  reverence  for  this  god  was  general 
among  them. 

/     Mithra  occupied  a  large  place  in  the  official 
cult.     In  the  calendar  the  seventh  month  was 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  9 

dedicated  to  him  and  also  doubtless  the  six-  ^ 
teenth  day  of  each  month.  At  the  time  of  his 
festival,  the  king,  if  we  may  believe  Ctesias,* 
was  permitted  to  indulge  in  copious  libations 
in  his  honor  and  to  execute  the  sacred  dances. 
Certainly  this  festival  was  the  occasion  of 
solemn  sacrifices  and  stately  ceremonies.  The 
MitJirakana  were  famed  throughout  all  Hither 
Asia,  and  in  their  form  IMihragdn  were  des- 
tined, in  modern  times,  to  be  celebrated  at 
the  commencement  of  winter  by  Mussulman 
Persia.  The  fame  of  Mithra  extended  to  the 
borders  of  the  y^gean  Sea;  he  is  the  only 
Tranian  god  whose  name  was  popular  in 
ancient  Greece,  and  this  fact  alone  proves  how 
deeply  he  was  venerated  by  the  nations  of 
the  great  neighboring  empire. 

The  religion  observed  by  the  monarch  and 
by  the  entire  aristocracy  that  aided  him  in 
governing  his  vast  territories  could  not  pos- 
sibly remain  confined  to  a  few  provinces  of  his 
empire.  We  know  that  Artaxerxes  Ochus 
had  caused  statues  of  the  goddess  Anahita,, — 
to  be  erected  in  his  different  capitals,  at  Baby- 
lon, Damascus,  and  Sardis,  as  well  as  at  Susa, 
Ecbatana,  and  Persepolis.  Babylon,  in  par- 
ticular, being  the  winter  residence  of  the 
sovereigns,  was  the  seat  of  a  numerous  body 
of  official  clergy,  called  Magi,  who  sat  in 
authority  over  the  indigenous  priests.      The 

*  Ctesias  apud  At  hen.,  X.,  45  {Textes  et  jnonuinents,  here- 
after cited  as  "  r.  et  M.,''  Vol.  II.,  p.  10). 


10  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

prerogatives  that  the  imperial  protocol  guar- 
anteed to  this  official  clergy  could  not  render 
them  exempt  from  the  influence  of  the  power- 
ful sacerdotal  caste  that  flourished  beside  them. 
The  erudite  and  refined  theology  of  the  Chal- 
doeans  was  thus  superposed  on  the  primitive 
Mazdean  belief,  which  was  rather  a  congeries 
of  traditions  than  a  well-established  body  of 
definite  dogmas.  The  legends  of  the  two  relig- 
ions were  assimilated,  their  divinities  were 
identified,  and  the  Semitic  worship  of  the  stars 
(astrolatry),  the  monstrous  fruit  of  long-con- 
tinued scientific  observations,  became  amalga- 
mated with  the  nature-myths  of  the  Iranians. 
Ahura-Mazda  was  confounded  with  Bel,  who 
reigned  over  the  heavens;  Anahita  was 
likened  to  Ishtar,  who  presided  over  the 
planet  Venus;  while  Mithra  became  the  Sun, 
Shamash.  As  Mithra  in  Persia,  so  Shamash 
in  Babylon  is  the  god  of  justice;  like  him,  he 
also  appears  in  the  east,  on  the  summits  of 
mountains,  and  pursues  his  daily  course  across 
the  heavens  in  a  resplendent  chariot;  like 
him,  finally,  he  too  gives  victory  to  the  arms 
of  warriors,  and  is  the  protector  of  kings. 
The  transformation  wrought  by  Semitic  theo- 
ries in  the  beliefs  of  the  Persians  was  of  so 
profound  a  character  that,  centuries  after,  in 
Rome,  the  original  home  of  Mithra  was  not 
infrequently  placed  on  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates.      According   to    Ptolemaius,*   this 

*Pto].,  Tetrabibl.,  II.,  2. 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  II 

potent  solar  deity  was  worshipped  in  all  the 
countries  that  stretched  from  India  to  Assyria. 

But  Babylon  was  a  step  only  in  the  propa- 
gation of  Mazdaism.  Very  early  the  Magi 
had  crossed  Mesopotamia  and  penetrated  to 
the  heart  of  Asia  Minor.  Even  under  the 
first  of  the  Achaemenides,  it  appears,  they 
established  themselves  in  multitudes  in  Arme-  y 
nia,  where  the  jnili^^^rnnus  rp1i2:inn  gradually  y/ 
succumbed  to  their  cult,  and  also  in  Cappa- 
docia,  where  their  altars  still  burned  in  great 
numbers  in  the  days  of  the  famous  geographer 
Strabo.  They  swarmed,  at  a  very  remote 
epoch,  into  distant  Pontus,  into  Galatia,  into 
Phrygia.  In  Lydia  even,  under  the  reign  of 
the  Antonines,  their  descendants  still  chanted 
their  barbaric  hymns  in  a  sanctuary  attrib-  - 
uted  to  Cyrus.  These  communities,  in  Cap-^ 
padocia  at  least,  were  destined  to  survive  the 
triumph  of  Christianity  and  to  be  perpetuated 
until  the  fifth  century  of  our  era,  faithfully 
transmitting  from  generation  to  generation 
their  manners,  usages,  and  modes  of  worship. 

At  first  blush  the  fall  of  the  empire  of  Da- 
rius would  appear  to  have  been  necessarily 
fatal  to  these  religious  colonies,  so  widely 
scattered  and  henceforward  to  be  severed 
from  the  country  of  their  birth.  But  in  point 
of  fact  it  was  precisely  the  contrary  that  hap- 
pened, and  the  Magi  found  in  the  Diadochi, 
the  successors  of  Alexander  the  Great,  no 
less  efficient  protection  than  that  which  they 


12  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

enjoyed  under  the  Great  King  and  his  satraps. 
After  the  dismemberment  of  the  empire  of 
Alexander  (323  B.C.),  there  were  estabHshed 
in  Pontus,  Cappadocia,  Armenia,  and  Com- 
magene,  dynasties  which  the  complaisant 
genealogists  of  the  day  feigned  to  trace  back 
to  the  Achaemenian  kings.  Whether  these 
royal  houses  were  of  Iranian  extraction  or 
not,  their  supposititious  descent  nevertheless 
imposed  upon  them  the  obligation  of  worship- 
ping the  gods  of  their  fictitious  ancestors.  In 
opposition  to  the  Greek  kings  of  Pergamon 
and  Antioch,  they  represented  the  ancient 
traditions  in  religion  and  politics.  These 
princes  and  the  magnates  of  their  ejitoiwage 
took  a  sort  of  aristocratic  pride  in  slavishly 
imitating  the  ancient  masters  of  Asia.  While 
not  evincing  outspoken  hostility  to  other 
religions  practised  in  their  domains,  they  yet 
reserved  especial  favors  for  the  temples  of 
the  Mazdean  divinities.  Oromazes  (Ahura- 
Mazda),  Omanos  (Vohumano),  Artagnes  (Ver- 
ethraghna),  Anaitis  (Anahka),  and  still  others 
received  their  homage.  C^ut  Mithra,  above 
all,  was  the  object  of  their  predilection.  The 
monarchs  of  these  nations  cherished  for  him 
a  devotion  that  was  in  some  measure  per- 
sonal, as  the  frequency  of  the  name  Mithra- 
dates  in  all  their  families  attests.  Evidently 
Mithra  had  remained  for  them,  as  he  had  been 
for  Artaxerxes  and  Darius,  the  god  that 
granted  monarchs  victory, — the  manifestation 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  I3 

and  enduring  guaranty  of  their  legitimate 
rights. 

^This  reverence  for  Persian  customs,  inher- 
ited from  legendary  ancestors,  this  idea  that 
piety  is  the  bulwark  of  the  throne  and  the  sole 
condition  of  success,  is  explicitly  affirmed  in 
the  pompous  inscription*  engraved  on  the 
colossal  tomb  that  Antiochus  L,  Epiphanes, 
of  Commagene  (69-34  B.C.),  erected  on  a  spur 
of  the  mountain-range  Taurus,  commanding 
a  distant  view  of  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates 
(Figure  i).  But,  being  a  descendant  by  his 
mother  of  the  Seleucida;  of  Syria,  and  sup- 
posedly by  his  father  of  Darius,  son  of 
Hystaspes,  the  king  of  Commagene  merged 
the  memories  of  his  double  origin,  and 
blended  together  the  gods  and  the  rites  of  the 
Persians  and  the  Greeks,  just  as  in  his  own 
dynasty  the  name  of  Antiochus  alternated 
with  that  of  Mithridates. 

Similarly  in  the  neighboring  countries,  the 
Iranian  princes  and  priests  gradually  suc- 
cumbed to  the  growing  power  of  the  Grecian 
civilization.  Under  the  Achecmenides,  all  the 
different  nations  lying  between  the  Pontus 
Euxinus  and  Mount  Taurus  were  suffered  by 
the  tolerance  of  the  central  authority  to  prac- 
tise their  local  cults,  customs,  and  languages. 
But  in  the  great  confusion  caused  by  the 
collapse  of  the  Persian  empire,  all  political  and 

*Michel,  Rectieil  inscr.  gr..  No.  735.  Compare  T.  et  M., 
Vol.  II.,  p.  89,  No.  I. 


14 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


religious  barriers  were  demolished.  Hetero- 
geneous races  had  suddenly  come  in  contact 
with  one  another,  and  as  a  result  Hither  Asia 
passed  through  a   phase  of  syncretism   analo- 


Fig.  I. 
KING    ANTIOCHUS    AND    MITHRA. 

(Bas-relief  of  the  colossal  temj^le  built  by  Antiochus  I.  of 

Commagene,  69-34    B.C.,  on   the    Nemrood  Dagh,  a 

spur  of  the  Taurus  Mountains.      T.  ct  J/.,  p.  188.) 

gous  to  that  which  is  more  distinctly  observ- 
able under  the  Roman  empire.  The  contact 
of  all  the  theologies  of  the  Orient  and  all 
the  philosophies  of  Greece  produced  the  most 
startling   combinations,   and  the   competition 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  I5 

between  the  different  creeds  became  exceed- 
ingly brisk.  Many  of  the  Magi,  from  Armenia 
to  Phrygia  and  Lydia,  then  doubtless  departed 
from  their  traditional  reserve  to  devote  them- 
selves to  active  propaganda,  and  like  the  Jews 
of  the  same  epoch  they  succeeded  in  gathering 
around  them  numerous  proselytes.  Later, 
when  persecuted  by  the  Christian  emperors, 
they  were  obliged  to  revert  to  their  quondam 
exclusiveness,  and  to  relapse  into  a  rigorism 
that  became  more  and  more  inaccessible. 

It  was  undoubtedly  during  the  period  of 
moral  and  religious  fermentation  provoked  by 
the  Macedonian  conquest  that  Mithraism 
received  approximately  its  definitive  form.  It 
'was  already  thoroughly  consolidated  when  it 
spread  throughout  the  Roman  empire.  Its 
dogmas  and  its  llturgic  traditions  must  have 
been  firmly  established  from  the  beginning  of 
its  diffusion.  But  unfortunately  we  are  unable 
to  determine  precisely  either  the  country  or 
the  period  of  time  In  which  Mazdaism  assumed 
the  characteristics  that  distinguished  it  in  Italy. 
Our  ignorance  of  the  religious  movements 
that  agitated  the  Orient  in  the  Alexandrian 
epoch,  the  almost  complete  absence  of  direct 
testimony  bearing  on  the  history  of  the 
Iranian  sects  during  the  first  three  centuries 
before  our  era,  are  our  main  obstacles  in 
obtaining  certain  knowledge  of  the  develop- 
ment of  Parseelsm.  The  most  we  can  do  is 
to  unravel  the  principal  factors  that  combined 


:^ 


l6  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

to  transform  the  religion  of  the  Magi  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  endeavor  to  show  how  in  different 
regions  varying  influences  variously  altered 
its  original  character. 

In  Armenia,  Mazdaism  had  coalesced  with 
the  national  beliefs  of  the  country  and    also 
'^  with  a  Semitic  element  imported  from  Syria. 

Mithra  remained  one  of  the  principal  divin- 
ities of  the  syncretic  theology  that  issued 
from  this  triple  influence.  As  in  the  Occident, 
some  saw  in  Mithra  the  genius  of  fire,  others 
identified  him  with  the  sun;  and  fantastic 
legends  were  woven  about  his  name.  He  was 
said  to  have  sprung  from  the  incestuous  inter- 
course of  Ahura-Mazda  with  his  own  mother, 
and  again  to  have  been  the  offspring  of  a 
common  mortal.  We  shall  refrain  from  dwell- 
ing upon  these  and  other  singular  myths. 
Their  character  is  radically  different  from  the 
dogmas  accepted  by  the  Occidental  votaries 
of  the  Persian  god.  That  peculiar  admixture 
of  disparate  doctrines  which  constituted  the 
religion  of  the  Armenians  appears  to  have 
had  no  other  relationship  with  Mithraism  than 
that  of  a  partial  community  of  origin. 
Jn  the  remaining  portions  of  Asia  Minor  the 
,   ,  changes  which  Mazdaism  underwent  were  far 

^^v^^  from  being  as  profound  as  in  z'\rmenia.  The 
opposjtion  between  the  indigenous  cults  and 
the  religion  whose  Iranian  origin  its  votaries 
delighted  in  recalling,  never  ceased  to  be  felt. 
The  pure  doctrine  of  which  the  worshippers 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  \^ 

of  fire  were  the  guardians  could  not  reconcile 
itself  easily  with  the  orgies  celebrated  in  honor 
of  the  lover  of  Cybele.  Nevertheless,  during 
the  long  centuries  that  the  emigrant  Magi 
^lived  peacefully  among  the  autochthonous 
'tribes,  certain  amalgamations  of  the  concep- 
tions of  the  two  races  could  not  help  being 
effected.  In  Pontus,  Mithra  is  represented  ^ 
^n  horseback  like  Men,  the  lunar  god  honored 
throughout  the  entire  peninsula.  In  other  - 
places,  he  is  pictured  in  broad,  slit  trousers 
{anaxy rides),  recalling  to  mind  the  mutilation 
of  Attis.  In  Lydia,  Mithra-Anahita  became 
Sabazius-Anaitis.  Other  local  divinities  like- 
wise lent  themselves  to  identification  with  the 
powerful  yazata.  It  would  appear  as  if  the 
priests  of  these  uncultured  countries  had 
endeavored  to  make  their  popular  gods  the 
compeers  of  those  whom  the  princes  and 
nobility  worshipped.  But  we  have  too  little 
knowledge  of  the  religions  of  these  coun- 
tries to  determine  the  precise  features  which 
they  respectively  derived  from  Parseeism  or 
imparted  to  it.  That  there  was  a  reciprocal 
influence  we  definitely  know,  but  its  precise 
scope  we  are  unable  to  ascertain.  Still,  ho]ffiz__ 
ever  superficial  jtjna^^haye  been,*  it  certainly 

*M.  Jean  Reville  {Jitudcs  de  tJieologie  et  d'hist.  piibl.  en 
hotnmage  a  la  facttlU-  de  Monfauban,  Paris  1901,  p.  336)  is 
inclined  to  accord  a  considerable  share  in  the  formation  of 
Mithraism  to  the  religions  of  Asia;  but  it  is  impossible  in  the 
present  state  of  our  knowledge  to  form  any  estimate  of  the  ex- 
tent of  this  influence. 


I8 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


b  c  d 

Fig.  2. 
IMPERIAL     COINS     OF    TRAPEZUS    (tREBIZOND), 
A    CITY    OF    PONTUS. 
Representing  a  divinity  on  horseback  resembling 
both  Men  and  Mithra,  and  showing  that  in  Pontus  the 
two  were  identified. 

a.  Bronze  coins.  Obverse:  Bust  of  Alexander 
Severus,  clad  in  a  paludamentum ;  head  crowned  with 
laurel.  Reverse:  The  composite  Men-Mithra  in  Orien- 
tal costume,  wearing  a  Phrj^gian  cap,  and  mounted  on 
a  horse  that  advances  toward  the  right.  In  front, 
a  flaming  altar.  On  either  side,  the  characteristic 
Mithraic  torches,  respectively  elevated  and  reversed. 
At  the  right,  a  tree  with  branches  overspreading  the 
horseman.  In  front,  a  raven  bending  towards  him. 
{218  A.D.) 

b.  A  similar  coin. 

c.  Obverse:  Alexander  Severus.  Reverse:  Men- 
Mithra  on  horseback  advancing  towards;  the  right.  In 
the  foreground,  a  flaming  altar;  in  the  rear,  a  tree 
upon  which  a  raven  is  perched. 

d.  A  similar  coin,  having  on  its  obverse  the  bust 
of  Gordianus  III.     (T!  ct  M.,  p.  190.) 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM 


19 


did  prepare  for  the  intimate  union  which  was 
3oon_tg_be  effected  in  the  West  between  the 
( Mysteries  of   Mithra  and  those  of  the  Great 
"Mother,  j  ^ 


t   I 


Fiff. 


BACTRIAN  COINS. 
On  the  coins  of  the  Scythian  kings  Kanerkes  and 
Hooerkes,  who  reigned  over  Kabul  and  the  Northwest 
of  India  from  87  to  129  A.D.,  the  image  of  Mithra  is 
found  in  company  with  those  of  other  Persian,  Greek, 
and  Hindu  gods.  These  coins  have  h'ttle  direct  con- 
nection with  the  Mysteries  as  they  appeared  in  the 
Occident,  but  they  merit  our  attention  as  being  the 
only  representations  of  Mithra  which  are  found  out- 
side the  boundaries  of  the  Roman  world. 

a.  Obverse:    An  image  of    King  Kanerkes.     Re- 
verse: An  image  of  Mithra. 

b.  The  obverse  has  a  bust  of   King  Hooerkes,  and 
the  reverse  an  image  of  Mithra  as  a  goddess. 

c.  Bust  of  Hooerkes  with  a  lunar  and  a  solar  god 
(Jlithra)  on  its  rever.se  side. 

d.  Bust  of   Hooerkes,  with   Mithra    alone   on    its 
reverse. 

^yf<S'-  Similar  coins.     (  7!  ct  J\T.,  p.  186.) 


20  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

When,  as  the  outcome  of  the  expedition  of 
Alexander  (334-323  B.C.),  the  civilization  of 
Greece  spread  throughout  all  Hither  Asia,  it 
impressed  itself  upon  Mazdaism  as  far  east  as 
Bactriana.     Nevertheless,  Iranism,  if  we  may 

K  employ  such  a  designation,  never  surrendered 
"to  Hellenism.  Iran  proper  soon  recovered  its 
moral  autonomy,  as  well  as  its  political  inde- 
pendence; and  generally  speaking,  the  power 
of  resistance  offered  by  Persian  traditions  to 
an  assimilation  which  was  elsewhere  easily 
effected  is  one  of  the  most  salient  traits  of  the 
history  of  the  relations  of  Greece  with  the 
Orient.  But  the  Magi  of  Asia  Minor,  being 
much  nearer  to  the  great  foci  of  Occidental 
culture,  were  more  vividly  illumined  by  their 
radiation.    Without  suffering  themselves  to  be 

\  absorbed  by   the    religion   of   the   conquering' 

•  strangers,  they  combined   their  cults  with  it. 

I  Tn  order  to  harmonize  their  barbaric  beliefs 
with  the  Hellenic  ideas,  recourse  was  had  to 
the  ancient  practice  of  identification.  They 
strove  to  demonstrate  that  the  Mazdean 
heaven  was  inhabited  by  the  same  denizens 
as  Olympus:  Ahura-Mazda  as  Supreme  Being 
was  confounded  with  Zeus;  Verethraghna,  the 
victorious  hero,  with  Heracles;  Anahita,  to 
whom  the  bull  was  consecrated,  became  Arte- 
mis Tauropolos,  and  the  identification  went 
so  far  as  to  localize  in  her  temples  the  fable  of 
Orestes.  Mithra,  already  regarded  in  Baby- 
l    Ion    as    the    peer   of   Shamash,  was    naturally 


THE   ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM 


21 


Fig-  4- 

TYPICAL   REPRESENTATION    OF    MITHRA. 

(Famous  Borghesi  bas-relief  in  white  marble,  now  in 

the  Louvre,  Paris,  but  originally  taken  from 

the  mithraeum  of  the  Capitol.) 

Mithra  is  sacrificing  the  bull  in  the  cave.  The  char- 
acteristic features  of  the  Mithra  monuments  are  all 
represented  here:  the  youths  with  the  upright  and  the 
inverted  torch,  the  snake,  the  dog,  the  raven,  Helios, 
the  god  of  the  sun,  and  Selene,  the  goddess  of  the  moon. 
Owing  to  the  Phrygian  cap,  the  resemblance  of  the 
face  to  that  of  Alexander,  and  the  imitation  of  the  motif 
of  the  classical  Greek  group  of  Nike  sacrificing  a  bull, — 
all  characteristics  of  the  Diadochian  epoch, — the  orig- 
inal of  all  the  works  of  this  type  has  been  attributed 
to  an  artist  of  Pergamon.     (7".  ct  M.,  p.  194.) 


22 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


associated  with  Helios;  but  he  was  not  subor- 
dinated to  him,  and  his  Persian  name  was 
never  replaced  in  the  liturgy  by  a  translation, 
as  had  been  the  case  with  the  other  divinities 
worshipped  in  the  Mysteries. 

The  synonomy  thus  speciously  established 


Fig.  5- 
TAUROCTONOUS    MITHRA. 

Artistic  Type. 
(Bas-relief,  formerly  /;;  doino  Andrea:  Cmgut'tice,  now 
in  St.  Petersburg.      T.  ct  M.,  p.  229.) 

between  appellations  having  no  relationship 
did  not  remain  the  exclusive  diversion  of  the 
mythologists;  it  was  attended  with  the  grave 
consequence  that  the  vague  personifications 
conceived   by   the   Oriental   imagination   now 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  23 

assumed    the    precise    forms   with    which    the/ 
Greek  artists  had  invested  the  Olympian  gods. 
Possibly  they  had  never  before   been   repre- 
sented in  the  guise  of  the  human  form,  or  if 
images  of   them    existed  in   imitation  of   the 


Fig.  6. 

TAUROCTONOUS    MITHRA. 

Artistic  Type  (Second  Century). 

(Grand  group  of  white  marble,  now  in  the  Vatican. 

T.  et  M.,  p.  210) 

Assyrian  idols  they  were  doubtless  both  gro- 
tesque and  crude.  Jn  thus  imparting  to  the 
Mazdean  heroes  all  the  seductiveness  of  the 
Helfenic  ideal,  the  conception  of  their  char- 
acter was  necessarily  modified;  and,  pruned 
br  tTieir  exotic  features,   they  were   rendered 


24  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

more  readily  acceptable  to  the  Occidental 
peoples.  One  of  the  indispensable  conditions 
for  the  success  of  this  exotic  religion  in  the 
Roman  world  was  fulfilled  when  towards  the 
second  century  before  our  era  a  sculptor  of 
th^  school  of  Pergamori  composed  the  pathetic 


Fig.  7. 

TAUROCTONOUS    MITHRA. 

Early  Artistic  Type. 

(Bas-relief  of  white  marble,  Rome,  now  in  the  Museum 
of  Fine  Arts,  Boston.) 

group  of  Mithra  Tauroctonos,  to  which  uni- 
versal custom  thenceforward  reserved  the 
place  of  honor  in  the  apse  of  the  spclcra* 

But  not  only  did  artemploy  its  powers  to 
soften  the  repulsive  "features  which  these  rude 

*  Compare  the  Chapter  on  "Mithraic  Art." 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  25 

Mysteries  might  possess  for  minds  formed  in 
the  schools  of  Greece;  philosophy  also  strove 
to  reconcile  their  doctrines  with  its  teachings, 
"or  rather  the  Asiatic  priests  pretended  to  dis- 
cover in  their  sacred  traditions  the  theories  of 
the  philosophic  sects.  None  of  these  sects  so 
readily  lent  itself  to  alliance  with  the  popular 
devotion  as  that  of  the  Stoa,  and  its  influence l^j// 
on  the  formation  of  MitKraism  was  profound. 
An  ancient  myth  sung  by  the  Magi  is  quoted 
by  Dion  Chrysostomos*  on  account  of  its  alle- 
gorical resemblance  to  the  Stoic  cosmology; 
and  many  other  Persian  ideas  were  similarly 
modified  by  the  pantheistic  conceptions  of  the 
disciples  of  Zeno.  Thinkers  accustomed  them- 
selves more  and  more  to  discovering  in  the 
dogmas  and  liturgic  usages  of  the  Orientals 
the  obscure  reflections  of  an  ancient  wis- 
dom, and  these  tendencies  harmonized  too 
much  with  the  pretensions  and  the  interest  of 
the  Mazdean  clergy  not  to  be  encouraged  by 
them  with  every  means  in  their  power. 

But  if  philosophical  speculation  transformed 
the  character  of  the  beliefs  of  the  Magi,  invest- 
ing them  with  a  scope  which  they  did  not 
originally  possess,  its  influence  was  neverthe- 
less upon  the  whole  conservative  rather  than 
revolutionary.  The  very  fact  that  it  invested 
legends  which  were  ofttimes  puerile  with  a 
symbolical      significance,     that     it     furnished 

*Dion  Chrys.,  Or.,  XXXV L,  §39,  et  seq.  (T.  et  M.,  Vol. 
II.,  p.  60,  No.  461). 


26  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

rational  explanations  for  usages  which  were 
apparently  absurd,  did  much  towards  insuring 
their  perpetuity.  If  the  theological,  founda- 
tion of  the  religion  was  sensibly  modified,  its 
V  liturgic  framework  remained  relatively  fixed, 
and  the  changes  wrought  in  the  dogma  were 
in  accord  with  the  reverence  due  to  the  ritual. 
The  superstitious  formalism  of  which  the 
minute  prescriptions  of  the  Vendidad  were 
the  expression  is  certainly  prior  to  the  period 
of  the  Sassanids.  The  sacrifices  which  the 
Magi  of  Cappadocia  offered  in  the  time  of 
Strabo  {circa  63  B.C. — 21  A.D.)  are  reminiscent 
of  all  the  peculiarities  of  the  Avestan  liturgy. 
It  was  the  same  psalmodic  prayers  before  the 
altar  of  fire;  and  the  same  bundle  of  sacred 
twigs  {barcsinan)\  the  same  oblations  of  milk, 
oil,  and  honey;  the  same  precautions  lest  the 
breath  of  the  officiating  priest  should  contami- 
nate the  divine  flame.  The  inscription  of 
Antiochus  of  Commagene  (69-34  B.C.)  in  the 
rules  that  it  prescribes  gives  evidence  of  a  like 
scrupulous  fidelity  to  the  ancient  Iranian  cus- 
toms. The  king  exults  in  having  always 
honored  the  gods  of  his  ancestors  according 
to  the  tradition  of  the  Persians  and  the 
Greeks;  he  expresses  the  desire  that  the 
priests  established  in  the  new  temple  shall 
wear  the  sacerdotal  vestments  of  the  same 
Persians,  and  that  they  shall  officiate  con- 
formably to  the  ancient  sacred  custom.  The 
sixteenth  day  of  each  month,  which  is  to  be 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  2^ 

Specially  celebrated,  is  not  to  be  the  birthday 
of  the  king  alone,  but  also  the  day  which  from 
time  immemorial  was  specially  consecrated  to 
Mithra.      Many,    many   years    after,    another 


Fig.  8, 
KING    ANTIOCHUS    AND    AHURA-MAZDA. 

(Bas-relief  of  the  temple  of  Antiochus  I.  of  Commagene, 

69-34  B.C.,  on  the  Nemrood  Dagh,  a  spur  of  the 

Taurus  Mountains.      Tct  M.,  p.  188.) 

Commagenean,  Lucian  of  Samosata,  in  a  pas- 
sage apparently  inspired  by  practices  he  had 
witnessed  in  his  own  country,  could  still  deride 
the  repeated  purifications,  the  interminable 
chants,   and  the  long    Medean    robes   of   the 


28  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

sectarians   of   Zoroaster.*      Furthermore,    he 
V   taunted    them    with    being   ignorant    even    of 
Greek  and  with  mumbling  an  incoherent  and 
unintelligible  gibberish. t 

The  conservative  spirit  of  the  Magi  of  Cap- 
padocia,  which  bound  them  to  the  time-worn 
usages  that  had  been  handed  down  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  abated  not  one  jot  of 
its  power  after  the  triumph  of  Christianity; 
and  St.  Basils  has  recorded  the  fact  of  its  per- 
sistence as  late  as  the  end  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury. Even  in  Italy  it  is  certain  that  the 
Iranian  Mysteries  never  ceased  to  retain  a 
goodly  proportion  of  the  ritual  forms  that  Maz- 
daism  had  observed  in  Asia  Minor  time  out  of 
mind,§  The  principal  innovation  consisted 
in  substituting  for  the  Persian  as  the  liturgic 
language,  the  Greek,  and  later  perhaps  the 
Latin.  This  reform  presupposes  the  exist- 
ence of  sacred  books,  and  it  is  probable  that 
subsequently  to  the  Alexandrian  epoch  the 
prayers  and  canticles  that  had  been  originally 
transmitted ^ralTy  were  committed  to  writing, 
lest  their  memory  should  fade  forever.  But 
this  necessary  accommodation  to  the  new  en- 
vironments did  not  prevent  Mithraism    from 


*Luc.,  Mempp.,  c.  6  {T.  et  A/.,  Vol.  II.,  p.  22). 

fLuc,  Deorum  cone,  c.  q,  Jup.  Trag.,  c.  8,  c.  13  {T.  et 
M.,  ibid.) 

:t:Basil.,  Epist.  238 ad Epiph.  (  7".  et  M.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  10,  No. 
3).     Compare  Priscus,  fr,  31  (I.  342  H/st.  m/n.,  Dind.). 

gSee  the  Chapter  on  "Liturgy,  Clergy,  &c." 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  29 

preserving  to  the  very  end  a  ceremonial  which 
was  essentially  Persian. 

The  Greek  name  of  "Mysteries"  which 
writers  have  applied  to  this  religion  should 
not  mislead  us.  The  adepts  of  Mithraism  did 
not  imitate  the  Hellenic  cults  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  their  secret  societies,  the  esoteric 
doctrine  of  which  was  made  known  only  after 
a  succession  of  graduated  initiations.  In 
Persia  itself  the  Magi  constituted  an  exclusive 
caste,  which  appears  to  have  been  subdivided 
into  several  subordinate  classes.  And  those 
of  them  who  took  up  their  abode  in  the  midst 
of  foreign  nations  different  in  language  and 
manners  were  still  more  jealous  in  concealing 
their  hereditary  faith  from  the  profane.  The 
knowledge  of  their  _arcana  gave  them  a  lofty 
consciousness  of  their  moral  superiority  and 
insured  their  prestige  over  the  ignorant  popu- 
lations that  surrounded  them.  It  is  probable 
that  the  Mazdean  priesthood  in  Asia  Minor 
as  in  Persia  was  primitively  the  hereditary  v 
attribute  of  a  tribe,  in  which  it  was  handed 
down  from  father  to  son;  that  afterwards  its 
incumbents  consented,  after  appropriate  cere- 
monies of  initiation,  to  communicate  its  secret 
dogmas  to  strangers,  and  that  these  proselytes 
were  then  gradually  admitted  to  all  the  dif- 
ferent ceremonies  of  the  cult.  The  Iranian 
diaspora  is  comparable  in  this  respect,  as  in 
many  others,  with  that  of  the  Jews.  Usage 
soon     distinguished     between     the     different 


30  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

classes  of  neophytes,  ultimately  culminating 
in  the  establishment  of  a  fixed  hierarchy.  But 
the  complete  revelation  of  the  sacred  beliefs 
and  practices  was  always  reserved  for  the 
privileged  few;  and  this  mystic  knowledge 
appeared  to  increase  in  excellence  in  propor- 
tion as  it  became  more  occult. 

All  the  original  rites  that  characterized  the 
Mithraic  cult  of  the  Romans  unquestionably 
go  back  to  Asiatic  origins:  the  animal  dis- 
guises used  in  certain  ceremonies  are  a  sur- 
vival of  a  very  widely-diffused  prehistoric 
custom  which  still  survives  in  our  day;  the 
practice  of  consecrating  mountain  caves  to 
the  god  is  undoubtedly  a  heritage  of  the  time 
when  temples  were  not  yet  constructed;  the 
cruel  tests  imposed  on  the  initiated  recall  the 
bloody  mutilations  that  the  servitors  of  Ma 
and  of  Cybele  perpetrated.  Similarly,  the 
legends  of  which  Mithra  is  the  hero  cannot 
have  been  invented  save  in  a  pastoral  epoch. 
These  antique  traditions  of  a  primitive  and 
crude  civilization  subsist  in  the  Mysteries 
by  the  side  of  a  subtle  theology  and  a  lofty 
system  of  ethics. 

f  An  analysis  of  the  constituent  elements  of 
Mithraism,  like  a  cross-section  of  a  geological 
formation,  shows  the  stratifications  of  this 
composite  mass  in  their  regular  order  of  depo- 

I  sition.  The  basal  layer  of  this  religion,  its 
lower  and  primordial  stratum,  is  the  faith  of 
ancient   Iran,   from  which   it    took    its  origin. 


THE    ORIGINS    OF    MITHRAISM  3 1 

/Above  this  Mazdean  substratum  was  depos- 
ited In  Babylon  a  thick  sediment  of  Semitic 
"doctrines,  and  afterwards  the  local  beliefs  of 
Asia  Minor  added  to  it  their  alluvial  deposits. 
Finally,  a  luxuriant  vegetation  of  Hellenic 
ideas  burst  forth  from  this  fertile  soil  and 
partly' concealed  from  view  its  true  original 
nature. 

This  composite  religion,  in  which  so  many 
heterogeneous  elements  were  welded  together, 
is  the  adequate  expression  of  the  complex 
civilization  that  flourished  in  the  Alexandrian 
epoch  in  Armenia,  Cappadocia,  and  Pontus. 
■\If  Mithridates  Eupator  had  realized  his  ambi- 
jtious  dreams,  this  Hellenized  Parseeism  would 
doubtless  have  become  the  state-religion  of  a 
vast  Asiatic  empire.  But  the  course  of  its 
destinies  was  changed  by  the  vanquishment  of 
this  great  adversary  of  Rome  (66  B.C.).  The 
d^bris-  of  the  Pontic  armies  and  fleets,  the 
fugitives  driven  out  by  the  war  and  flocking 
in  from  all  parts  of  the  Orient,  disseminated 
the  Iranian  Mysteries  among  that  nation  of 
pirates  that  rose  to  power  under  the  protecting 
shelter  of  the  mountains  of  Cilicia.  Mithra 
became  firmly  established  in  this  country,  in 
which  Tarsus  continued  to  worship  him  until 
the  downfall  of  the  empire  (Figure  9).  Sup- 
ported by  its  bellicose  religion,  this  republic 
of  adventurers  dared  to  dispute  the  supremacy 
of  the  seas  with  the  Roman  colossus.  Doubt- 
less  they   considered   themselves  the  chosen 


32 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


nation,  destined  to  carry  to  victory  the  religion 
of  the  invincible  god.  Strong  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  protection,  these  audacious  mariners 
boldly   pillaged  the   most    venerated    sanctu- 


Fig.  9. 

MITHRAIC    MEDALLION    OF     BRONZE    FROM    TARSUS, 
CILICIA. 

Obverse:  Bust  of  Gordianus  III. ,  clad  in  a  palu- 
damentum  and  wearing  a  rayed  crown.  Reverse: 
Mithra,  wearing  a  rayed  crown  and  clad  in  a  floating 
chlamys,  a  tunic  covered  by  a  breast-plate,  and  anaxy- 
rides  (trousers),  seizes  with  his  left  hand  the  nostrils  of 
the  bull,  which  he  has  forced  to  its  knees,  while  in  his 
right  hand  he  holds  aloft  a  knife  with  which  he  is 
about  to  slay  the  animal.     (  T.  et  J/.,  p.  190.) 

aries  of  Greece  and  Italy,  and  the  Latin 
world  rang  for  the  first  time  with  the  name  of 
the  barbaric  divinity  that  was  soon  to  impose 
upon  it  his  adoration. 


THE    DISSEMINATION    OF    MITHRAISM   IN 
THE    ROMAN   EMPIRE 

IT  MAY  be  said,  in  a  general  way,  that 
Mithra  remained  forever  excluded  from 
the  Hellenic  world.  The  ancient  authors  of 
Greece  speak  of  him  only  as  a  foreign  god 
worshipped  by  the  kings  of  Persia.  Even 
during  the  Alexandrian  epoch  he  had  not 
descended  from  the  plateau  of  Asia  Minor  to 
the  shores  of  Ionia.  In  all  the  countries 
washed  by  the  /Egean  Sea,  only  a  single  late  ^ 
inscription  in^  the  Piraeus  recallshis_existence, 
and  we  seek  in  vain  for  his  name  among 
the  numerous  exotic  divinities  worshipped  at 
Delos  in  the  second  century  before  our  era. 
Under  the  empire,  it  is  true,  mithrccums  are 
found  in  divers  ports  of  the  coast  of  Phoenicia, 
and  ^gypt,  near  Aradus,  Sidon,  and  Alexan- 
dria; but  these  isolated  monuments  only  throw 
into  stronger  relief  the  absence  of  every  ves- 
tige of  the  Mithraic  Mysteries  in  the  interior 
of  the  country.  |The  recent  discovery  of  a\ 
temple  of  Mithra  at  Memphis  would  appear  ' 
to  be  an  exception  that  confirms  the  rule,  for 
the  Mazdean  deity  was  probably  not  intro- 
duced into  that  ancient  city  until  the  tirnenf 
the__Rjan3-a:ns.  ?  He  has  not  been  mentioneH 
hitherto  in  any  inscription  of  Egypt  or  Assyria, 
and  there  is  likewise  nothing  to  show  that 
altars  were  erected  to  him  even  in  the  capital 

33 


34  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

of  the  Seleucidai.  In  these  semi-Oriental  em- 
pires the  powerful  organization  of  the  indig- 
enous clergy  and  the  ardent  devotion  of  the 
people  for  their  national  idols  appear  to  have 
arrested  the  progress  of  the  invader  and  to 
have  paralyzed  his  influence. 

Qne  characteristic  detail  shows  that  the 
Iranian  yazata  never  made  many  converts  in 
the  Hellenic  or  Hellenized  countries.  Greek 
onomatology,  which  furnishes  a  considerable 
series  of  theophorous  or  god-bearing  names 
indicating  the  popularity  which  the  Phrygian 
and  Egyptian  divinities  enjoyed,  has  no  Alith- 
rion,  JMitJiroclcs,  JMithrodorus,  or  Mithropkilus, 
to  show  as  the  counterparts  of  its  Menophili, 
its  Metrodoti,  its  Isidori,  and  its  Serapions. 
All  the  derivatives  of  MIthra  are  of  barbaric 
formation.  Although  the  Thraclan  Bendis,  the 
Asian  Cybele,  the  Serapis  of  the  Alexandrians, 
and  even  the  Syrian  Baals,  were  successively 
received  with  favor  in  the  cities  of  Greece, 
that  country  never  extended  the  hand  of  hospi- 
tality to  the  tutelar  deity  of  Its  ancient  enemies. 

His  distance  from  the  great  centers  of 
ancient  civilization  explains  the  belated  arrival 
"of  Mithra  in  the  Occident.  Official  worship 
"was  rendered  at  Rome  to  the  JMagna  Alatcr 
of  Pesslnus  as  early  as  204  B.C.;  Isis  and 
Serapis  made  their  appearance  there  in  the 
first  century  before  our  era,  and  long  before 
this  they  had  counted  their  worshippers  in 
Italy  by  multitudes.  The  Carthaginian  Astarte 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  35 

had  a  temple  in  the  capital  from  the  end  of 
the  Punic  Wars;  the  Bellona  of  Cappadocia 
from  the  period  of  Sulla;  the  Dca  Syria  of 
Hierapolis  from  the  beginning  of  the  empire, 
when  the  Persian  Mysteries  were  still  totally 
unknown  there.  And  yet  these  deities  were 
those  of  a  nation  or  a  city  only,  while  the 
domain  of  Mithra  extended  from  the  Indus 
to  the  Pontus  Euxinus. 

But  this  domain,  even  in  the  epoch  of 
Augustus,  was  still  situated  almost  entirely 
beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  empire;  and  the 
central  plateau  of  Asia  Minor,  which  had 
long  resisted  the  Hellenic  civilization,  remained 
even  more  hostile  to  the  culture  of  Rome. 
This  region  of  steppes,  forests,  and  pastures, 
intersected  by  precipitous  declivities,  and 
having  a  climate  more  rigorous  than  that  of 
Germany,  had  no  attractions  for  foreigners, 
and  the  indigenous  dynasties  which,  despite 
the  state  of  vassalage  to  which  they  had  been 
reduced,  still  held  their  ground  under  the 
early  Caesars,  encouraged  the  isolation  that 
had  been  their  distinction  for  ages.  Cilicia, 
it  is  true,  had  been  organized  as  a  Roman 
province  in  the  year  102  B.C.,  but  a  few  points 
only  on  the  coast  had  been  occupied  at  that 
period,  and  the  conquest  of  the  country  was 
not  completed  until  two  centuries  later.  Cap- 
padocia was  not  incorporated  until  the  reign 
of  Tiberius,  the  western  part  of  Pontus  until 
the  reign  of  Nero,  and  Commagene  and  Les- 


36  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

ser  Armenia  not  definitively  until  the  reign 
of  Vespasian.  Not  until  then  were  regular 
and  immediate  relations  established  between 
these  remote  countries  and  the  Occident.  The 
exigencies  of  administration  and  the  organiza- 
tion of  defence,  the  mutations  of  governors 
and  officers,  the  relieving  of  procurators  and 
revenue  officers,  the  levies  of  troops  of  infantry 
and  cavalry,  and  finally  the  permanent  estab- 
lishment of  three  legions  along  the  frontier  of 
the  Euphrates,  provoked  a  perpetual  inter- 
change of  men,  products,  and  ideas  between 
these  mountainous  districts  hitherto  closed  to 
the  world,  and  the  European  provinces.  Then 
came  the  great  expeditions  of  Trajan,  of 
Lucius  Verus,  of  Septimius  Severus,  the  sub- 
jection of  Mesopotamia,  and  the  foundation  of 
numerous  colonies  in  Osrhoene  and  as  far  as 
Nineveh,  which  formed  the  links  of  a  great 
chain  binding  Iran  with  the  Mediterranean. 
These  successive  annexations  of  the  Casars 
were  the  first  cause  of  the  diffusion  of  the 
Mithraic  religion  in  the  Latin  world.  It  be- 
gan to  spread  there  under  the  Flavians 
and  developed  under  the  Antonines  and  the 
Severi,  just  as  did  another  cult  practised 
alongside  of  it  in  Commagene,  namely  that 
of  Jupiter  Dolichenus,*  which  made  at  the 
same  time  the  tour  of  the  Roman  empire. 
According  to  Plutarch, f    Mithra  was  intro- 

*Named  from  the  city  of  Doliche,  now  Doluk,  in  Commagene. 
fPlutarch,    Vit.  Pomp.,  24  {T.  et  M.,  Vol.   II.,  p.  35  d.). 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  37 

duced  much  earlier  into  Italy.  The  Romans, 
by  this  account,  are  said  to  have  been  initiated 
into  his  Mysteries  by  the  Cilician  pirates  con- 
quered by  Pompey.  Plutarch's  testimony  has 
nothing  improbable  in  it.  We  know  that 
the  first  Jewish  community  established  trans 
TiberiiJi  (across  the  Tiber)  was  composed  of 
captives  that  the  same  Pompey  had  brought 
back  from  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  {63  B.C.). 
Owing  to  this  particular  event,  it  is  possible 
that  towards  the  end  of  the  republic  the  Persian 
god  actually  had  found  a  few  faithful  devotees 
in  the  mixed  populace  of  the  capital.  But 
mingled  with  the  multitudes  of  fellow  wor- 
shippers that  practised  foreign  rites,  his  little 
group  of  votaries  did  not  attract  attention. 
^\\Q.  yazata  was  the  object  of  the  same  distrust 
as  the  Asiatics  that  worshipped  him.  The 
influence  of  this  small  band  of  sectaries  on 
the  great  mass  of  the  Roman  population  was 
virtually  as  infinitesimal  as  is  to-day  the  influ- 
ence of  Buddhistic  societies  on  modern  Europe.  . 
It  was  not  undl_tlije.-end^Qf_J;Jie_fir^t_£ent^  / 
that  the  name  of  Mithra  began  to  be  gener- 
ally bruited  abroad  in_Rome.  When  Statins 
wrote  the  first  canto  of  the  Thcbaid,  about 
eighty  years  after  Christ,  he  had  already  seen 
typical  representations  of  the  tauroctonous 
hero,*  and  it  appears  from  the  testimony  of 
Plutarch  that  in   his   time    (46-125   A.D.)    the 

*Statius,  T/icb.,  I.,  717:  Pcrsci sub  ritpibus  antri  Indig- 
nata  sequi  torqiientem  cornua  Mithram. 


38  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

Mazdean  sect  already  enjoyed  a  certain  noto- 
riety in  the  Occident.*  This  conclusion  is 
confirmed  by  epigraphic  documents.  The 
most  ancient  inscription  to  Mithra  which  we 
possess  is  a  bilingual  inscription  of  a  freed- 
man  of  the  Flavians  (69^^§^^J-1.).  Not  long 
after,  a  marble  group  is  consecrated  to  him 
by  a  slave  of  T.  Claudius  Livianus  who  was 
pretorian  prefect  under  Trajan  (102  A.D.) 
(Figure  10).  The  invincible  god  must  also  have 
penetrated  about  the  same  time  into  central 
Italy,  at  Nersse,  in  the  country  of  the  ^qui;  a 
text  of  the  year  172  A.D.  has  been  discovered 
which  speaks  of  a  mithrccum  that  had  "crum- 
bled to  pieces  from  old  age."  The  appear- 
ance of  the  invader  in  the  northern  part  of 
the  empire  is  almost  simultaneous.  It  is 
undoubted  that  the  fifteenth  legion  brought 
the  Mysteries  to  Carnuntum  on  the  Danube 
about  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Vespasian, 
and  we  also  know  that  about  148  A.D.  they 
were  practised  by  the  troops  in  Germany. 
Under  the  Antonines,  especially  from  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  of  Commodus,  the 
proofs  of  their  presence  abound  in  all  coun- 
tries. At  the  end  of  the  second  century,  the 
Mysteries  were  celebrated  at  Ostia  in  at  least 
four  temples. 

We  cannot  think  of  enumerating  all  the 
cities  in  which  our  Asiatic  cult  was  estab- 
lished,  nor  of  stating  in  each  case  the  reasons 

*Plut..  /.  c. 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  39 

why  it  was  introduced.  Despite  their  fre- 
quency, the  epigraphic  texts  and  sculptured 
monuments  throw  but  very  imperfect  Hght  on 


ALCiAV5'Tl-CMlVJA>JI'5£R'VlI.O.^O].-AA'V'n:J 


Fig.  10. 

TAUROCTONOUS    MITHRA. 

(Marble  group  of  the  second  century,  British  Museum.) 
The  remarkable  feature  of  this  group  is  that  not 
blood,  but  three  spikes  of  wheat,  issue  from  the  wound 
of  the  bull.  According  to  the  Mithraic  theory,  wheat 
and  the  vine  sprang  from  the  spinal  cord  and  the  blood 
of  the  sacrificed  animal  (see  the  Chapter  on  "The 
Doctrine  of  the  Mithraic  Mysteries").     T.  el  J/.,  p.  22S. 

the  local  history  of  Mithraism.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  us  to  follow  the  detailed  steps  in  its 
advancement,  to  distinguish  the  concurrent 
influences  exercised  by  the  different  churches. 


40  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

to  draw  up  a  picture  of  the  work  of  conver- 
sion, pursuing  its  course  from  city  to  city  and 
province  to  province.     All  that  we  can  do  is 
to  indicate  in  large  outlines  in  what  countries 
the  new  faith  was  propagated  and  who  were 
in  general  the  champions  that  advocated  it. 
fl  I    The    principal    agent    of    its    diffusion    was 
p^jndoubtedly  the  army.    The  Mithraic  religion^ 
is  predominantly  a  religion  of  soldiers,  and  it 
'  was  not  without  good  reason  that  the   name 
of   milites   was   given    to    a   certain   grade   of 
initiates.      The    influence    of    the    army    may 
appear  less  capable  of  affording  an  explana- 
tion when  one  reflects  that  under  the  emper- 
ors the  legions  were  quartered   in  stationary 
encampments,  and  from  the  time  of  Hadrian 
at   least    (i  17-138   A.D.)  they   were    severally 
recruited    from  the    provinces  in    which    they 
were   stationed.      But   this   general    rule   was 
subject  to    numerous   exceptions.      Thus,   for 
example,  the  Asiatics  contributed  for  a  long 
time  the  bulk  of  the  effective  troops  in  Dal- 
matia  and  Moesia,  and  for  a  certain  period  in 
Africa   also.      Furthermore,    the   soldier  who 
after   several   years  of   service    in    his   native 
country  had   been   promoted   to  the   rank   of 
centurion  was  as  a  rule   transferred  to,  some 
foreign    station;    and    after    he    had    passed 
through    the   different   stages    of    his   second 
charge  he  was  often  assigned  to  a  new  garri- 
son, so  that  the  entire  body  of  centurions  of 
any  one  legion   constituted   "a  sort   of  micro- 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  4I 

cosm  of  the  empire."*  These  officers  were  a 
potent  source  of  influence,  for  their  very  posi-|^ 
tfon  insured  to  them  a  considerable  moral 
influence  over  the  conscripts  whom  it  was 
their  vocation  to  instruct.  In  addition  to  this 
individual  propaganda,  which  is  almost  totally 
withdrawn  from  our  ken,  the  temporary  or 
permanent  transfers  of  single  detachments, 
and  sometimes  of  entire  regiments,  to  remotely 
situated  fortresses  or  camps  brought  together 
people  of  all  races  and  beliefs.  Finally,  there 
were  to  be  found  side  by  side  with  the  legion- 
aries who  were  Roman  citizens,  an  equal,  if 
not  a  greater,  number  of  foreign  atixzlia,  who 
did  not,  like  their  comrades,  enjoy  the  privi- 
lege of  serving  in  their  native  country.  Indeed, 
in  order  to  forestall  local  uprisings,  it  was  a 
set  part  of  the  imperial  policy  to  remove 
these  foreign  troops  as  far  as  possible  from 
the  country  of  their  origin.  Thus,  under 
the  Flavians,  the  indigenous  aiai  or  cohorts 
formed  but  a  minimal  fraction  of  the  auxil- 
iaries that  guarded  the  frontiers  of  the  Rhine 
and  the  Danube. 

Among  the  recruits  summoned  from  abroad 
to  take  the  place  of  the  national  troops  sent 
to  distant  "parts  were  numerous  Asiatics,  and 
^perhaps  no  country  of  the  Orient  furnished, 
relatively  to  the  extent  of  its  territory,  a 
greater  number  of  Roman  soldiers  than  Com- 
magene,  where  Mithraism  had  struck  deepest 

*Jung,  Fas i en  der  Provinz  Dacien,  1894,  p.  xiv. 


42  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

root.  In  addition  to  horsemen  and  legion- 
aries, there  were  levied  in  this  country,  prob- 
ably at  the  time  of  its  union  with  the  empire, 
at  least  six  cohorts  of  allies  {auxilici).  Numer- 
ous also  were  the  native  soldiers  of  Cappa- 
docia,  Pontus,  and  Cilicia,  not  to  speak  of 
Syrians  of  all  classes;  and  the  Caesars  did  not 
scruple  even  to  enroll  those  agile  squadrons 
of  Parthian  cavalry  with  whose  warlike  quali- 
ties they  had,  to  their  own  cost,  but  too  often 
been  made  acquainted. 

The  Roman  soldier  was,  as  a  rule,  pious  and 
even  superstitious.  The  many  perils  to  which 
he  was  exposed  caused  him  to  seek  unremit- 
tingly the  protection  of  Heaven,  and  an  incal- 
culable number  of  dedicatory  inscriptions 
bears  witness  both  to  the  vivacity  of  his  faith 
and  to  the  variety  of  his  beliefs.  The  Orien- 
tals especially,  transported  for  twenty  years 
and  more  into  countries  which  were  totally 
strange  to  them,  piously  preserved  the  mem- 
ories of  their  national  divinities,  and  when- 
ever the  opportunity  offered,  they  did  not  fail 
to  assemble  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  them 
devotion.  They  had  experienced  the  need  of 
conciliating  the  great  lord  {Baal),  whose 
anger  as  little  children  they  had  learned  to 
fear.  Their  worship  also  offered  an  occasion 
for  reunion,  and  for  recalling  to  memory  under 
the  gloomy  climates  of  the  North  their  distant 
country.  But  their  brotherhoods  were  not 
exclusive;  they  gladly  admitted  to  their  rites 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  43 

those  of  their  companions  in  arms,  of  what- 
ever origin,  whose  aspirations  the  official  re- 
ligion of  the  army  failed  to  satisfy,  and  who 
hoped  to  obtain  from  the  foreign  god  more 
efficacious  succor  in  their  combats,  or,  in  case 
of  death,  a  happier  lot  in  the  life  to  come. 
Afterwards,  these  neophytes,  transferred  to 
other  garrisons  according  to  the  exigencies 
of  the  service  or  the  necessities  of  war,  from 
converts  became  converters,  and  formed  about 
them  a  new  nucleus  of  proselytes.  In  this 
manner,  the  Mysteries  of  Mithra,  first  brought 
to  Europe  by  semi-barbarian  recruits  from 
Xappadocia  or  Commagene^  were  rapidly  dis-^ 
seminated  to  the  utmost  confines  of  the  an- 
"cient  world. 

"From  the  banks   of  the   Black  Sea   to  the 
mountains  of  Scotland  and  to  the  borders  of 
"the   great   Sahara    Desert,    along    the    entire 
length  of  the  Roman  frontier,  Mithraic  mon- 
'uments   abound.      Lower    Moesia,    which   was- 
"Tiot  explored  until  very  recently,  has  already 
furnished  a  number  of  them,— a  circumstance 
which  will  not  excite  our  astonishment  when 
it   is    remembered    that    Oriental  contingents 
supplied    in    this    province    the    deficiency   of 
native    conscripts.      To    say   nothing   of   the 
port  of  Tomi,  legionaries   practised  the  Per- 
sian cult  at  Troesmis,  at  Durostorum,  and  at 
CEscus,   as  well  as   at  the   Tropccuui    Traiani, 
which    the    discovery   of    the    monuments    of 
Adam-Klissi  has  recently  rendered  celebrated. 


44  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

In  the  interior  of  the  country,  this  cult  pene- 
trated to  Montana  and  to  Nicopolis;  and  it  is 
doubtless  from  these  northern  cities  that  ii 
crossed  the  Balkans  and  spread  into  the  north- 
ern parts  of  Thrace,  notably  above  Serdica 
^Sofia)  ?.nd  as  far  as  the  environs  of  Philippop- 
olis  in  the  valley  of  the  Hebrus.  Ascending 
the  Danube,  it  gained  a  footing  at  Vimina- 
cium,  the  capital  of  Upper  Mcesia;  but  we  are 
ignorant  of  the  extent  to  which  it  spread  in 
this  country,  which  is  still  imperfectly  explored. 
The  naval  flotilla  that  patrolled  the  waters  of 
this  mighty  river  was  manned  and  even  com- 
manded by  foreigners,  and  the  fleet  undoubt- 
edly disseminated  the  Asiatic  religion  in  all  the 
ports  it  touched. 

We  are  better  informed  regarding  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  introduction  of  Mithra- 
ism  into  Dacia.  When  in  107  A.D.  Trajan 
annexed  this  barbarous  kingdom  to  the  Ro- 
man empire,  the  country,  exhausted  by  six 
years  of  obstinate  warfare,  was  little  more 
than  a  desert.  To  repopulate  it,  the  emperor 
transported  to  it,  as  Eutropius*  tells  us,  mul- 
titudes of  colonists  "ex  toto  orbe  Romano','  from 
all  the  territories  of  Rome.  The  population 
of  this  country  was  even  more  mixed  in  the 
second  century  than  it  is  to-day,  where  all  the 
races  of  Europe  are  still  bickering  and  battling 
with  one  another.  Besides  the  remnants  of 
the  ancient  Dacians,  were  found  here  Illyrians 

*Eutropius,  VIII,  6. 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  45 

and  Pannonians,  Galatians,  Carians,  and 
Asic^tics,  people  from  Edessa  and  Palmyra, 
and  "^itill  others  besides,  all  of  whom  contin- 
ued to  practise  the  religions  of  their  native 
countries.  But  none  of  these  cults  prospered 
more  than  the  Mysteries  of  Mithra,  and  one 
is  astounded  at  the  prodigious  development 
that  this  religion  took  during  the  150  years 
that  the  Roman  domination  lasted  in  this 
region.  It  flourished  not  only  in  the  capital 
of  the  province,  Sarmizegetusa,  and  in  the 
cities  that  sprang  up  near  the  Roman  camps, 
like  Potaissa  and  notably  Apulum,  but  along 
the  entire  extent  of  the  territory  occupied  by 
the  Romans.  Whereas  one  cannot  find  in 
Dacia,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  slightest  vestige 
of  a  Christian  community,  from  the  fortress 
Szamos  Ujvar  to  the  northern  frontier  and  as 
far  as  Romula  in  Wallachia,  multitudes  of 
inscriptions,  of  sculptures,  and  of  altars  which 
have  escaped  the  destruction  of  mithrgeums 
have  been  found.  These  ddbris  especially 
abound  in  the  central  portions  of  the  country, 
along  the  great  causeway  that  followed  the 
course  of  the  valley  of  the  Maros,  the  princi- 
pal artery  by  which  the  civilization  of  Rome 
spread  into  the  mountains  of  the  surround- 
ing country.  The  single  colony  of  Apulum 
counted  certainly  four  temples  of  the  Persian 
deity,  and  the  spelceiiui  of  Sarmizegetusa, 
recently  excavated,  still  contains  the  frag- 
ments of  a  round  fifty  of  bas-reliefs  and  other 


46  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

votive  tablets  which   the   piety  of  the  faithful 
had  there  consecrated  to  their  god. 

Likewise  in  Pannonia,  the  Iranian  rehgion 
implanted  itself  in  the  fortified  cities  that 
formed  the  chain  of  Roman  defences  along 
the  Danube,  in  Cusum,  Intercisa,  Aquincum, 
Brigetio,  Carnuntnm,  Vindobona,  and  even  in 
the  hamlets  of  the  interior.  It  was  especially 
powerful  in  the  two  principal  places  of  this 
double  province,  in  Aquincum  and  in  Carnun- 
tum;  and  in  both  of  these  cities  the  causes 
of  its  greatness  are  easily  discovered.  The 
first-named  city,  where  in  the  third  century 
the  Mysteries  were  celebrated  in  at  least  five 
temples  scattered  over  its  entire  area,  was 
the  headquarters  of  the  legio  II  adjiitrix* 
which  had  been  formed  in  the  year  70  A.D. 
by  Vespasian  from  sailors  of  the  fleet  sta- 
tioned at  Ravenna.  Among  the  freedmen 
thus  admitted  into  the  regular  army,  the  pro- 
portion of  Asiatics  was  considerable,  and  it  is 
probable  that  from  the  very  beginning  Mithra- 
ism  counted  a  number  of  adepts  in  this  irreg- 
ular legion.  When  towards  the  year  120  A.D. 
it  was  established  by  Hadrian  in  Lower  Pan- 
nonia, it  undoubtedly  brought  with  it  to  this 
place  the  Oriental  cult  to  which  it  appears  to 
have  remained  loyal  to  the  day  of  its  dissolu- 
tion.   The  Icg'io  I  adjiiti'ix,  which  had  a  similar 

*One  of  the  legions  raised  by  the  proconsuls  in  the  Roman 
provinces  for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  the  veteran  army. 
—  Trans. 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  4/ 

origin,  probably  sowed  the  fertile  seeds  of 
Mithraism  in  like  manner  in  Brigetio,  when 
under  Trajan  its  camp  was  transferred  to  that 
place. 

We  can  determine  with  even  greater  pre- 
cision the  manner  in  which  the  Persian  god 
arrived  at  Carnuntum.  In  71  or  72  A.D.,  Ves- 
pasian caused  this  important  strategic  posi- 
tion to  be  occupied  by  the  Icgio  XV  Apol- 
linaris,  which  for  the  preceding  eight  or  nine 
years  had  been  warring  in  the  Orient.  Sent 
in  63  A.D.  to  the  Euphrates  to  reinforce 
the  army  which  Corbulo  was  leading  against 
the  Parthians,  it  had  taken  part  during  the 
years  67  to  70  A.D.  in  suppressing  the  upri- 
sings of  the  Jews,  and  had  subsequently  accom- 
panied Titus  to  Alexandria.  The  losses  which 
this  veteran  legion  had  suffered  in  these  san- 
guinary campaigns  were  doubtless  made  good 
with  recruits  levied  in  Asia.  These  conscripts 
were  for  the  most  part  probably  natives  of 
Cappadocia,  and  it  was  they  that,  after  their 
transportation  to  the  Danube  with  the  old 
rank  and  file  of  the  legion,  there  first  offered 
sacrifices  to  the  Iranian  god  whose  name  had 
been  hitherto  unknown  in  the  region  north 
of  the  Alps.  There  has  been  found  at  Car- 
nuntum a  votive  Mithraic  inscription  due  to 
a  soldier  of  the  Apollinarian  legion  bearing 
the  characteristic  name  of  Barbarus.  The 
first  worshippers  of  the  Sol  hivictus  conse- 
crated  to   him  on    the   banks  of   the  river  a 


48  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

semicircular  grotto,  which  had  to  be  restored 
from  its  ruins  in  the  third  century  by  a 
Roman  knight,  and  whose  high  antiquity  is 
evidenced  in  all  its  details.  When,  some 
forty  years  after  its  arrival  in  the  Occident, 
Trajan  again  transported  the  fifteenth  legion 
to  the  Euphrates,  the  Persian  cult  had 
already  struck  deep  roots  in  the  capital  of 
Upper  Pannonia.  Not  only  the  fourteenth 
legion,  gemma  Alartia,  which  replaced  that 
which  had  returned  to  Asia,  but  also  the 
sixteenth  and  the  thirteenth  gcDiince,  certain 
detachments  of  which  were,  as  it  appears, 
connected  with  the  first-mentioned  legion, 
succumbed  to  the  allurements  of  the  Mys- 
teries and  counted  initiates  in  their  own  ranks. 
Soon  the  first  temple  was  no  longer  adequate, 
and  a  second  was  built,  which — and  this  is  an 
important  fact  —  immediately  adjoined  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  Dolichenus  of  Commagene. 
A  municipality  having  developed  alongside 
the  camp  and  the  conversions  continuing  to 
multiply,  a  third  mithrgcum  was  erected,  prob- 
ably towards  the  beginning  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, and  its  dimensions  surpass  those  of  all 
similar  structures  hitherto  discovered.  It  was 
enlarged  by  Diocletian  and  the  princes  asso- 
ciated with  him  in  307  A.D.,  when  they  held 
their  conference  at  Carnuntum.  Thus  these 
princes  sought  to  give  public  testimony  of  their 
devotion  to  Mithra  in  this  holy  city,  which  of 
all  those  in  the  North  probably  contained  the 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  49 

most  ancient  sanctuaries  of  the  Mazdean 
sect. 

This  warlike  post,  the  most  important  in  the 
entire  region,  seems  also  to  have  been  the 
religious  center  from  which  the  foreign  cult 
radiated  into  the  smaller  towns  of  the  sur- 
rounding country.  Stix-Neusiedl,  where  it  was 
certainly  practised  from  the  middle  of  the 
second  century,  was  only  a  dependent  village 
of  this  powerful  city.  But  farther  to  the  south 
the  temple  of  Scarbantia  was  enriched  by  a 
decurio  colonics  Carnuntt.  Towards  the  east  the 
territory  of  yEquinoctium  has  furnished  a  vo- 
tive inscription  to  the  Petrcc  Geneti'ici,  and  still 
farther  off  at  Vindobona  (Vienna)  the  soldiers 
of  the  tenth  legion  had  likewise  learned, 
doubtless  from  the  neighboring  camp,  to  cele- 
brate the  Mysteries,  Even  in  Africa,  traces 
are  found  of  the  influence  which  the  great 
Pannonian  city  exercised  on  the  development 
of  Mithraism. 

Several  leagues  from  Vienna,  passing  across 
the  frontier  of  Noricum,  we  come  upon  the 
hamlet  of  CommagencE,  the  name  of  which  is 
doubtless  due  to  the  fact  that  a  squadron  of 
Commageneans  (an  ala  Coinmagenoruni)  was 
there  quartered.  One  is  not  surprised,  there- 
fore, to  learn  that  a  bas-relief  of  the  tauroc- 
tonous  god  has  been  discovered  here.  Never- 
theless, in  this  province,  as  in  Rhaetia,  the  army 
does  not  seem  to  have  taken,  as  it  did  in  Pan- 
nonia,  an  active  part  in  the  propagation  of  the 


50 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


Asiatic  religion.  A  belated  inscription  of  a 
spccidaior  Icgiouis  I  Xoricoriini  is  the  only  one 
in  these  countries  that  mentions  a  soldier;  and 
generally  the  monuments  of  the  Mysteries  are 
very  sparsely  scattered  in  the  valley  of  the 
Upper  Danube,  where  the  Roman  troops  were 
concentrated.  They  are  not  found  in  increased 
numbers  until  the  other  slope  of  the  Alps  is 
reached,  and  the  epigraphy  of  this  last-named 
region  forbids  us  to  assign  to  them  a  military 
origin. 


Fig.  II. 

SUN-GOD. 

(Fragment  from  the  grand  bas-relief  of  Virunum, 
in  Noricum.      T.  ct  M.,  p.  336.) 

On  the  other  hand,  the  marvellous  extension 
that  Mithraism  took  in  the  two  Germanies  is 
undoubtedly  due  to  the  powerful  army  corps 
that  defended  that  perpetually  menaced  terri- 
tory. We  find  here  an  inscription  dedicated 
by  a  centurion  to  the  Soli  Invicto  Mithra:  about 
the  year  148  A.D.,  and   it  is  probable  that  in 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE 


51 


the  middle  of  the  second  century  this  god  had 
already  obtained  a  goodly  number  of  converts 
in  the  Roman  garrisons.  All  the  regiments 
appear  to  have  been  seized  with  the  contagion: 
the  legions  VIII  Augusta,  XII  Priuiigaiia, 
and  XXX  Ulpia,  the  cohorts  and  auxiliary  ahr, 
as  well  as  the  picked  troops  of  citizen  volun- 


Fig.    12. 

MITHRAIC    BAS-RELIEF    OF    OSTERBURKEN. 

(Discovered  in   1S61   near  the  ruins  of  a  Roman  fort, 
in  the  Odenwald,  Hesse.      T.  et  J/.,  Plate  VI.) 


teers.  So  general  a  diffusion  prevents  us  from 
telling  exactly  from  what  side  the  foreign 
religion  entered  this  country,  but  it  may  be 
assumed  without  fear  of  error  that,  save  pos- 
sibly at  a  certain  few  points,  it  was  not 
imported  directly  from  the  Orient,  but  was 
transmitted  through  the  agency  of  the  garri- 
sons on  the  Danube;  and  if  we  wish  to  assign 


52  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

absolutely  the  circumstances  of  its  origin  we 
may  take  it  for  granted,  with  every  likelihood 
of  truth,  that  the  eighth  legion,  which  was 
transferred  from  Moesia  to  Upper  Germany 
in  the  year  70  A.D.,  first  practised  there  the 
religion  which  was  soon  destined  to  become 
the  preponderating  one  of  this  country. 

Of  all  countries  Germany  is  that  in  which 
the  greatest  number  of  mithrceums,  or  places 
of  Mithraic  worship,  has  been  discovered. 
Germany  has  given  us  the  bas-reliefs  having 
the  greatest  dimensions  and  furnishing  the 
most  complete  representations;  and  certainly 
no  god  of  paganism  ever  found  in  this  nation 
as  many  enthusiastic  devotees  as  Mithra.  The 
Agi'i  Dccuniatcs,  a  strip  of  land  lying  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine  and  forming  the 
military  confines  of  the  empire,  together  with 
the  advance  posts  of  the  Roman  military  sys- 
tem between  the  river  Main  and  the  fortified 
walls  of  the  limes,  have  been  marvellously 
fertile  in  discoveries.  North  of  Frankfort, 
near  the  village  of  Heddernheim,  the  ancient 
civiias  Tajinensiuin,  three  important  temples 
have  been  successively  exhumed  (Figs.  13,  14); 
three  others  existed  in  Friedberg  in  Hesse 
and  three  more  have  been  dug  out  in  the  sur- 
rounding country.  On  the  other  side,  along 
the  entire  course  of  the  Rhine,  from  Augst 
(Raurica)  near  Basel  as  far  as  Xanten  (Vetera), 
passing  through  Strassburg,  Mayence,  Neu- 
wied,  Bonn,  Cologne,  and  Dormagen,  a  series 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE 


53 


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54 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


of  monuments  have  been  found  which  show 
clearly  the  manner  in  which  the  new  faith 
spread  like  an  epidemic,  and  was  disseminated 


'■IP 


-dx. -^mwn 


Fig.  14. 

REVERSE    OF    THE    GRAND    MITHRAIC    BAS-RELIEF 
OF    HEDDERNHEIM,    GERMANY. 

into  the  very  heart  of  the  barbarous  tribes  of 
the  Ubians  and  Batavians. 

The    influence    of    Mithraism    among    the 
troops    massed    along    the    Rhenish     frontier 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE 


55 


Fig.  15. 

BAS-RELIEF    OF    NEUENHEIM,   NEAR    HEIDELBERG, 
GERMANY. 

This  monument,  which  escaped  mutilation  at  the 
hands  of  the  early  fanatics,  was  discovered  in  1838  in 
a  cave  near  Neuenheim,  a  village  on  the  southern 
slope  of  the  Heiligenberg,  near  Heidelberg,  by  work- 
men who  were  laying  the  foundation  of  a  farmhouse. 
It  is  interesting  as  distinctly  showing  in  a  series  of 
small  bas-reliefs  twelve  important  scenes  from  the  life 
of  Mithra,  including  the  following:  His  birth  from  the 
rocks  (top  of  left  border),  his  capture  of  the  bull,  which 
he  carries  to  the  cave  (right  hand  border),  his  ascent 
to  Ahura- Mazda  (top  border).  The  second  scene  from 
the  top  of  the  left  border  is  likewise  interesting;  it 
represents  Kronos  (Zervan)  handing  to  Zeus  (Ahura- 
Mazda)  the  scepter  of  the  government  of  the  world. 

is  also  proved  by  the  extension  of  this  rehg- 
ion  into  the  interior  of  Gaul.  A  soldier  of  the 
eighth   legion   dedicated   an   altar   to  the  Deo 


56  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

Invicto  at  Geneva,  which  lay  on  the  mihtary 
road  from  Germany  to  the  Mediterranean; 
and  other  traces  of  the  Oriental  cult  have 
been  found  in  modern  Switzerland  and  the 
French  Jura.  In  Sarrebourg  {^Pons  Saravi) 
at  the  mouth  of  the  pass  leading  from  the 
Vosges  Mountains,  by  which  Strassburg  com- 
municated and  still  communicates  with  the 
basins  of  the  Mosel  and  the  Seine,  a  spekeum 
has  recently  been  exhumed  that  dates  from 
the  third  century;  another,  of  which  the 
principal  bas-relief,  carved  from  the  living 
rock,  still  subsists  to  our  day,  existed  at 
Schwarzerden,  between  Metz  and  Mayence. 
It  would  be  surprising  that  the  great  city  of 
Treves,  the  regular  residence  of  the  Roman 
military  commanders,  has  preserved  only 
some  dd^ris  of  inscriptions  and  statues,  did 
not  the  important  role  which  this  city  played 
under  the  successors  of  Constantine  explain 
the  almost  total  disappearance  of  the  monu- 
ments of  paganism.  Finally,  in  the  valley  of 
the  Meuse,  not  far  from  the  route  that  joins 
Cologne  with  Bavay  {Bagacuni),  some  curious 
remains  of  the  Mysteries  have  been  discov- 
ered. 

From  Bavay,  this  route  leads  to  Boulogne 
{Gesoriacum),  the  naval  base  of  the  classis 
Britannica  or  Britannic  fleet.  The  statues  of 
the  two  dadophors,  or  torch-bearers,  which 
have  been  found  here  and  w^ere  certainly 
chiselled  on  the  spot,  were  doubtless  offered 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  5/ 

to  the  god  by  some  foreign  mariner  or  officer 
of  the  fleet.  It  was  the  object  of  this  impor- 
tant naval  station  to  keep  in  daily  touch  with 
the  great  island  that  lay  opposite,  and  espe- 
cially with  London,  which  even  at  this  epoch 
was  visited  by  numerous  merchants.  The 
existence  of  a  mithrgeum  in  this  principal 
commercial  and  military  depot  of  Britain 
should  not  surprise  us.  Generally  speaking, 
the  Iranian  cult  was  in  no  country  so  com- 
pletely restricted  to  fortified  places  as  in 
Britain.  Outside  of  York  {Eburacum),  where 
the  headquarters  of  the  troops  of  the  prov- 
ince were  situated,  it  was  disseminated  only 
in  the  west  of  the  country,  at  Caerleon  {Isca) 
and  at  Chester  {Deva),  where  camps  had  been 
established  to  repel  the  inroads  of  the  Gallic 
tribes  of  the  Silures  and  the  Ordovices;  and 
finally  in  the  northern  outskirts  of  the  country 
along  the  wall  of  Hadrian,  which  protected 
the  territory  of  the  empire  from  the  incur- 
sions of  the  Picts  and  the  Caledonians.  All 
the  stations  of  this  line  of  ramparts  appear  to 
have  had  their  Mithraic  temple,  where  the 
commander  of  the  place  {pvirfcctiis)  furnished 
an  example  of  devotion  for  his  subordinates. 
It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  Asiatic  god 
had  penetrated  in  the  train  of  the  army  to 
these  northern  regions,  but  it  is  impossible  to 
determine  precisely  the  period  at  which  he 
reached  this  place  or  the  troops  by  whom  he 
was  carried  there.     But    there    is   reason    for 


58  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

believing  that  Mithra  was  worshipped  in  these 
countries  from  the  middle  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, and  that  Germany*  served  as  the  inter- 
mediary agent  between  the  far  Orient 

^'Et  penitus  toto  divisos  orbe  Britannos." 

j\t  the  other  extremity  of  the  Roman  world 
the  Mysteries  were  likewise  celebrated  by 
s"oldiers.  They  had  their  adepts  in  the  third 
legion  encamped  at  Lamb?cse  and  in  the  posts 
that  guarded  the  defiles  of  the  Aurasian 
Mountains  or  that  dotted  the  frontiers  of  the 
Sahara  Desert.  Nevertheless,  they  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  as  popular  to  the  south 
of  the  Mediterranean  as  in  the  countries  to 
the  north,  and  their  propagation  has  assumed 
here  a  special  character.  Their  monuments, 
nearly  all  of  which  date  from  later  epochs, 
are  due  to  the  officers,  or  at  least  to  the  cen- 
turions, many  of  whom  were  of  foreign  origin, 
rather  than  to  the  simple  soldiers,  nearly  all 
of  whom  were  levied  in  the  country  which  they 
were  charged  to  defend.  The  legionaries  of 
Numidia  remained  faithful  to  their  indigenous 
gods,  who  were  either  Punic  or  Berber  in  ori- 
gin, and  only  rarely  adopted  the  beliefs  of  the 
companions  with  whom  their  vocation  of  arms 
had  thrown  them  in  contact.  Apparently, 
therefore,  the  Persian  religion  was  practised 
in  Africa  almost  exclusively  by  those  whom 
military  service  had  called  to  these  countries 

♦See  supra,  p.  i. 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  59 

from  abroad;  and  the  bands  of  the  faithful 
were  composed  for  the  most  part,  if  not  of 
Asiatics,  at  least  of  recruits  drawn  from  the 
Danubian  provinces. 

Finally,  in  Spain,  the  country  of  the  Occi- 
dent which  is  poorest  in  Mithraic  monuments, 
the  connection  of  their  presence  with  that  of 
the  garrisons  is  no  less  manifest.  Through- 
out the  entire  extent  of  this  vast  peninsula, 
in  which  so  many  populous  cities  were  crowded 
together,  they  are  almost  totally  lacking, 
even  in  the  largest  centers  of  urban  popula- 
tion. Scarcely  the  faintest  vestige  of  an 
inscription  is  found  in  Emerita  and  Tarraco, 
the  capitals  of  Lusitania  and  Tarraconensis. 
But  in  the  uncivilized  valleys  of  Asturias  and 
Gallgecia  the  Iranian  god  had  an  organized 
cult.  This  fact  will  be  immediately  connected 
with  the  prolonged  sojourn  of  a  Roman  le- 
gion in  this  country,  which  remained  so  long 
unsubjugated.  Perhaps  the  conventicles  of 
the  initiated  also  included  veterans  of  the 
Spanish  cohorts  who,  after  having  served  as 
auxiliaries  on  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube, 
returned  to  their  native  hearths  converted  to 
the  Mazdean  faith. 

f  The  army  thus  united  in  the  same  fold  citi- 
zens and  emigrants  from  all  parts  of  the 
world;  kept  up  an  incessant  interchange  of 
officers    and    centurions    and    even   of   entire 

I  army-corps  from  one  province  to  another, 
according  to  the  varying  needs  of  the  day;  in 


I 


60  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

'  fine,  threw  out  to  the  remotest  frontiers  of 
the  Roman  world  a  net  of  perpetual  commu- 
nications. Yet  this  was  not  the  only  way  in 
which  the  military  system  contributed  to  the 
dissemination  of  Oriental  religions.  ^After. 
the  expiration  of  their  term  of  service,  the 
soldiers  continued  in  their  places  of  retire- 
ment the  practices  to  which  they  had  become 
accustomed  under  the  standards  of  the  army; 
and  they  soon  evoked  in  their  new  environ- 
ment numerous  imitators.  Frequently  they 
settled  in  the  neighborhood  of  their  latest 
station,  in  the  little  towns  which  had  grad- 
ually replaced  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
military  camps  the  shops  of  the  sutlers.  At 
times,  too,  they  would  choose  their  homes  in 
some  large  city  of  the  country  where  they 
had  served,  to  pass  there  with  their  old  com- 
rades in  arms  the  remainder  of  their  days. 
Lyons  always  sheltered  within  its  walls  a  large 
number  of  these  veteran  legionaries  of  the 
German  army,  and  the  only  Mithraic  inscrip- 
tion that  London  has  furnished  us  was  written 
by  a  soldier  emeritus  of  the  troops  of  Britain. 
It  was  customary  also  for  the  emperor  to  send 
discharged  soldiers  to  some  region  where  a 
colony  was  to  be  founded;  Elusa  in  Aquitania 
was  probably  made  acquainted  with  the 
Asiatic  cult  by  Rhenish  veterans  whom  Sep- 
timius  Severus  (193-21 1  A.D.)  established  in 
this  region.  Frequently,  the  conscripts  whom 
the    military    authorities    transported    to    the 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  6l 

confines  of  the  empire  retained  at  heart  their 
love  for  their  native  country,  with  which  they 
never  ceased  to  sustain  relations;  but  when, 
after  twenty  or  twenty-five  years  of  struggle 
and  combat,  they  returned  to  their  native 
country,  they  preferred  to  the  gods  of  their 
own  city  or  tribe,  the  foreign  deity  whose  mys- 
terious worship  some  military  comrade  had 
taught  them  in  distant  lands. 

Nevertheless,  the  propagation  of  Mithraism) 
in  the  towns  and  country  districts  of  the  provf 
inces  in  which  no  armies  were  stationed  was ; 
due  in  great  measure  to  other  agencies.     By 
her  continued  conquests  in  Asia,   Rome  had 
subjected  to  her  domination  numerous  Semitic 
provinces.     After  the  founding  of  the  empire 
had  assured  peace  to  the  entire  Roman  world 
and   permanently  insured  the  safety  of  com- 
merce,   these    new   subjects,  profiting  by  the 
special  aptitudes  of  their  race,  could  be  seen 
gradually    concentrating   in    their    hands    the 
entire  traffic  of  the   Levant.     As   the   Phoeni- 
cians   and    Carthaginians    formerly,    so    now 
the  Syrians  populated  with  their  colonies  all 
the   shores    of    the    Mediterranean.      In    the 
Hellenic    epoch   they  had    established    them- 
selves in  the  commercial  centers  of  Greece,  and 
notably  at  Delos,     A  number  of  these   mer- 
chants now  flocked  to  the  vicinity  of   Rome, 
settling  at  Pozzuoli  and  at  Ostia.    They  appear 
to  have  carried  on  business  in  all  the   mari- 
time cities  of  the  Occident.     They  are  found 


62  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

in  Italy  at  Ravenna,  Aquileia,  and  Tergeste; 
at  Salonai  in  Dalmatia,  and  as  far  distant  as 
Malaga  in  Spain.  Their  mercantile  activity 
even  led  them  into  the  distant  interior  of 
these  countries  at  every  point  where  there 
was  the  least  prospect  of  profit.  In  the  valley 
of  the  Danube  they  penetrated  as  far  as 
Sarmizegetusa  and  Apulum  in  Dacia,  and  as 
far  as  Sirmium  in  Pannonia.  In  Gaul,  this 
Oriental  population  was  particularly  dense. 
They  reached  Bordeaux  by  the  Gironde  and 
ascended  the  Rhone  as  far  as  Lyons.  After 
occupying  the  banks  of  this  river,  they  flocked 
into  the  interior  of  the  province,  and  Treves, 
the  great  capital  of  the  north,  attracted  them 
in  hordes.  They  literally  filled  the  Roman 
world.  Even  the  later  invasions  of  the  bar- 
barians were  impotent  to  dampen  their  spirit 
of  enterprise.  Under  the  Merovingians  they 
still  spoke  their  Semitic  idiom  at  Orleans. 
Their  emigration  was  only  checked  when  the 
Saracens  destroyed  the  navigation  of  the  Med- 
iterranean. 

The  Syrians  were  distinguished  in  all  epochs 
by  their  ardent  zeal.  No  people,  not  even 
the  Egyptians,  defended  their  idols  with  such 
great  pertinacity  against  the  Christians.  So, 
when  they  founded  a  colony,  their  first  care 
was  to  organize  their  national  cults,  and  the 
mother  country  frequently  allowed  them  gen- 
erous subsidies  towards  the  performance  of 
this  pious  duty.     It  was   in    this    manner  that 


MITHRAISIM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  63 

the    deities   of    Heliopolis,  of    Damascus,   and 
Palmyra  first  penetrated  to  Italy. 

The  word  Syrian  had  in  popular  usage  a 
very  vague  significance.  This  word,  which  was 
an  abbreviation  of  Assyrian,  was  frequently 
confounded  with  it,  and  served  to  designate 
generally  all  the  Semitic  populations  anciently 
subject  to  the  kings  of  Nineveh,  as  far  east  as, 
and  even  beyond,  the  Euphrates.  It  embraced, 
therefore,  the  sectaries  of  Mithra  established 
in  the  valley  of  this  river;  and  as  Rome 
extended  her  conquests  in  this  quarter,  the 
worshippers  of  the  Persian  god  necessarily 
became  more  and  more  numerous  among  the_ 
"Syrians"  who  dwelt  in  the  Latin  cities. 

Nevertheless,  the  majority  of  the  merchants 
that  founded  the  commercial  houses  of  the 
Occident  were  servitors  of  the  Semitic  Baals, 
and  those  who  invoked  Mithra  were  generally 
Asiatics  in  humbler  conditions  of  life.  The 
first  temples  which  this  god  possessed  in  the 
west  of  the  empire  were  without  doubt  mainly 
frequented  by  slaves.  The  niangoncs,  or  slave- 
mongers,  procured  their  human  merchandise 
preferably  from  the  provinces  of  the  Orient. 
From  the  depths  of  Asia  Minor  they  drove 
to  Rome  hordes  of  slaves  purchased  from  the 
great  landed  proprietors  of  Cappadocia  and 
of  Pontus;  and  this  imported  population,  as 
one  ancient  writer  has  put  it,  ultimately  came 
to  form  distinct  towns  or  quarters  in  the  great 
capital.     But  the  supply  did  not  suffice  for  the 


64  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

increasing  consumption  of  depopulated  Italy. 
War  also  was  a  mighty  purveyor  of  human 
chattels.  When  we  remember  that  Titus,  in 
a  single  campaign  in  Judaea  (70  A.D.),  reduced 
to  slavery  90,000  Jews,  our  imagination  be- 
comes appalled  at  the  multitudes  of  captives 
that  the  incessant  struggles  with  the  Par- 
thians,  and  particularly  the  conquests  of  Tra- 
jan, must  have  thrown  on  the  markets  of  the 
Occident. 

But  whether  taken  eii  masse  after  some  great 
victory,  or  acquired  singly  by  the  profes- 
sional traffickers  in  human  flesh,  these  slaves 
were  particularly  numerous  in  the  maritime 
towns,  to  which  their  transportation  was  cheap 
and  easy.  They  introduced  here,  concurrently 
with  the  Syrian  merchants,  the  Oriental  cults 
and  particularly  that  of  Mithra.  This  last- 
named  god  has  been  found  established  in  an 
entire  series  of  ports  on  the  Mediterranean. 
We  signalize  above  all  his  presence  at  Sidon 
in  Phoenicia  and  at  Alexandria  in  Egypt.  In 
Italy,  if  Pozzuoli  and  its  environs,  including 
Naples,  have  furnished  relatively  few  monu- 
ments of  the  Mysteries,  the  reason  is  that 
this  city  had  ceased  in  the  second  century  to 
be  the  great  entrepot  from  which  Rome  derived 
its  supplies  from  the  Levant.  The  Tyrian 
colony  of  Pozzuoli,  at  one  time  wealthy  and 
powerful,  complains  in  the  year  172  A.D.  of 
being  reduced  to  a  small  settlement.  After 
the  immense  structures  of  Claudius  and  Tra- 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE 


65 


jan  were  erected  at  Ostia,  this  latter  city 
inherited  the  prosperity  of  its  Campanian 
rival;  and  the  result  was  that  all  the  Asiatic 


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66 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


religions  soon  had  here  their  chapels  and  their 
congregations  of  devotees.     Yet  none  enjoyed 


Fig.  17. 

SILVANUS. 
Mosaic  in  a  niche  of  the  vestibule  of  the  mith- 
raeum  of  Fig.  16,  in  Ostia,  near  the  Baths  of  Antoninus. 
Silvanus  holds  in  one  hand  a  fir  branch,  in  the  other  a 
hatchet.  See  the  Chapter  on  "The  Doctrine  of  the 
Mithraic  Mysteries." 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  6/ 

greater  favor  than  that  of  the  Iranian  god. 
In  the  second  century,  at  least  four  or  five 
spelcBa  had  been  dedicated  to  him.  One  of 
them^  constructed  at  the  latest  in  162  A.D., 
and  communicating  with  the  baths  of  Anto- 
ninus, was  situated  on  the  very  spot  where  the 
foreign  ships  landed  (Fig.  16),  and  another  one 
adjoined  the  ii/chvou,  or  sanctuary  in  which 
the  official  cult  of  the  Magna  jMatcj^  was  cele- 
brated. To  the  south  the  little  hamlet  of  An- 
tium  (Porto  d' Anzio)  had  followed  the  example 
of  its  powerful  neighbor;  while  in  Etruria, 
Rusellae  (Grosseto)  and  Pisee  likewise  accorded 
a  favorable  reception  to  the  Mazdean  deity. 

In  the  east  of  Italy,  Aquileia  is  distinguished 
for  the  number  of  its  Mithraic  inscriptions. 
As  Trieste  to-day,  so  Aquileia  in  antiquity  was 
the  market  in  which  the  Danubian  provinces 
exchanged  their  products  for  those  of  the 
South.  Pola,  at  the  extremity  of  Istria,  the 
islands  of  Arba  and  Brattia,  and  the  sea-ports 
of  the  coast  of  Dalmatia,  Senia,  lader,  Salonse, 
Narona,  Epidaurus,  including  Dyrrachium  in 
Macedonia,  have  all  preserved  more  or  less 
numerous  and  indubitable  vestiges  of  the  in- 
fluence of  the  invincible  god,  and  distinctly 
mark  the  path  which  he  followed  in  his  journey 
to  the  commercial  metropolis  of  the  Adriatic. 
(See  PVontispiece.) 

His  progress  may  also  be  followed  in  the 
western  Mediterranean.  In  Sicily  at  Syracuse 
and   Palermo,  on  the  coast  of  Africa  at  Car- 


68 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


thage,    Rusicada,    Icosium,    Caesarea,   on    the 
opposite  shores  of  Spain  at   Malaga  and  Tar- 


CCAE/i/LIVS 

ERMFROSANT 

ISTESHVIVS  LO 

CI  F  ECITSVa 
p  F  r  A 


?fS^ 


CCAE\il3LlVS 
ERMEROSANT 
ISTESHVIVSLO 
C  I  FECIT  SVa 

PEC 


Fig.  iS. 

STATUES    OF    TORCH-BEARERS    (dADOPHORI) 

From  the  same  mithrseum  at  Ostia,  now  in  the 
Lateran.  See  the  Chapter  on  "The  Doctrine  of  the 
Mithraic  Mysteries." 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  69 

raco,  Mithraic  associations  were  successively 
formed  in  the  motley  population  which  the 
sea  had  carried  to  these  cities.  And  farther 
to  the  north,  on  the  Gulf  of  Lyons,  the  proud 
Roman  colony  of  Narbonne  doffed  its  exclu- 
siveness  in  his  favor. 

In  Gaul,  especially,  the  correlation  which 
we  have  discovered  between  the  spread  of  the 
Mysteries  and  the  extension  of  Oriental  traffic 
is  striking.  Both  were  principally  concen- 
trated between  the  Alps  and  the  Cevennes,  or 
to  be  more  precise,  in  the  basin  of  the  Rhone, 
the  course  of  which  had  been  the  main  route 
of  its  penetration.  Sextantio,  near  Montpel- 
lier,  has  given  us  the  epitaph  of  a  pater  sacro- 
rtun,  and  Aix  in  the  Provence  a  presumably 
Mithraic  representation  of  the  sun  on  his 
qnadriga.  Then,  ascending  the  river,  we  find 
at  Aries  a  statue  of  the  leontocephalous 
Kronos  who  was  worshipped  in  the  Mysteries; 
at  Bourg-Saint-Andeol,  near  Montelimar,  a 
representation  of  the  tauroctonous  god  sculp- 
tured from  the  living  rock  near  a  spring;  at 
Vaison,  not  far  from  Orange,  a  dedicatory 
inscription  made  on  the  occasion  of  an  initia- 
tion; at  Vienne,  a  spelcBum  from  which,  among 
other  monuments,  has  been  obtained  the  most 
unique  bas-relief  of  the  lion-headed  god 
hitherto  discovered.  Finally,  at  Lyons,  which 
is  known  from  the  history  of  Christianity  to 
have  had  direct  relations  with  Asia  Minor, 
the  success  of  the   Persian  religion   was   cer- 


70  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

talnly  considerable.  F'arther  up  the  river,  its 
presence  has  been  proved  at  Geneva  on  the 
one  hand  and  at  Besan9on  and  Mandeure  on 
the  Doubs,  a  branch  of  the  Saone,  on  the 
other.  An  unbroken  series  of  sanctuaries 
which  were  without  doubt  in  constant  com- 
munication witli  one  another  thus  bound 
together  the  shores  of  the  great  inland  sea 
and  the  camps  of  Germany. 

Sallying  forth  from  the  flourishing  cities  of 
the  valley  of  the  Rhone,  the  foreign  cult  crept 
even  into  the  depths  of  the  mountains  of 
Dauphiny,  Savoy,  and  Bugey.  Labatie  near 
Gap,  Lucey  not  far  from  Belley,  and  Vieu-en- 
Val  Romey  have  preserved  for  us  inscriptions, 
temples,  and  statues  dedicated  by  the  faithful. 
As  we  have  said,  the  Oriental  merchants  did 
not  restrict  their  activity  to  establishing  agen- 
cies in  the  maritime  and  river  ports;  the  pros- 
pect of  more  lucrative  trade  attracted  them  to 
the  villages  of  the  interior,  where  competition 
was  less  active.  The  dispersion  of  the  Asiatic 
slaves  was  even  more  complete.  Scarcely  had 
they  disembarked  from  their  ships,  when  they 
were  scattered  haphazard  in  every  direction 
by  the  auctioneers,  and  we  find  them  in  all 
the  different  countries  discharging  the  most 
diverse  functions. 

In  Italy,  a  country  of  great  estates  and 
ancient  municipalities,  either  they  went  to 
swell  the  armies  of  slaves  who  were  tilling 
the  vast  domains  of  tlic  Roman  aristocracy,  or 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  7I 

they  were  afterwards  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
superintendents  {actor,  villiciis)  and  became 
the  masters  of  those  whose  miserable  lot  they 
had  formerly  shared.  Sometimes  they  were 
acquired  by  some  municipality,  and  as  public 
servants  [scrvi  publici)  they  carried  out  the 
orders  of  the  magistrates  or  entered  the  bu- 
reaus of  the  administrations.  It  is  difficult  to 
realize  the  rapidity  with  which  the  Oriental 
religions  were  in  this  way  able  to  penetrate 
to  regions  which  it  would  appear  they  could 
never  possibly  have  attained.  A  double  in- 
scription at  Nersa2,  in  the  heart  of  the  Apen- 
nines, informs  us  that  in  the  year  172  of  our 
era  a  slave,  the  treasurer  of  the  town,  had 
restored  a  mithraeum  that  had  fallen  into  ruins. 
At  Venusia,  a  Greek  inscription  'HXiw  MtOpa 
was  dedicated  by  the  steward  of  some  wealthy 
burgher,  and  his  name  Sagaris  at  once  proves 
his  servile  rank  and  Asiatic  origin.  The 
examples  could  be  multiplied.  There  is  not  a 
shadow  of  a  doubt  that  these  obscure  servitors 
of  the  foreign  god  were  the  most  active  agents 
in  the  propagation  of  the  Mysteries,  not  only 
within  the  limits  of  the  city  of  Rome  itself,  and 
in  the  other  great  cities  of  the  country,  but 
throughout  the  entire  extent  of  Italy,  from 
Calabria  to  the  Alps.  We  find  the  Iranian 
cult  practised  at  Grumentum,  in  the  heart  of 
Lucania;  then,  as  we  have  already  said,  at 
Venusia  in  Apulia,  and  at  Nersse  in  the  country 
of  the  /Equi,  also  at  Aveia  in  the  land  of  the 


72 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


VestinI;  then  in  Umbria,  along  the  Flaminian 
road,  at  Interamna,  at  Spoletuni,  where  one 
can  visit  a  spehviini  decorated  with  paintings, 
and  at  Sentinum,  where  there  has  been  dis- 
covered a  list  of  the  patrons  of  a  collcgmui  of 
Mithraists;  likewise,  in  Etruria  this  religion 
followed  the  Cassian  way  and  established 
itself  at  Sutriiim,  at  Bolsena,  and  perhaps  at 
Arretium  and  at  Florence.  Its  traces  are  no 
less  well  marked  and  significant  to  the  north 
of  the  Apennines.  They  appear  only  spo- 
radically in  Emilia,  where  the  provinces  of 
Bologna  and  Modena  alone  have  preserved 
some  interesting  debris,  as  they  do  also  in  the 
fertile  valley  of  the  Po.  Here  Milan,  which 
rapidly  grew  to  prosperity  under  the  empire, 
appears  to  be  the  only  locality  in  which  the 
exotic  religion  enjoyed  great  favor  and  official 
protection.  Some  fragments  of  inscriptions 
exhumed  at  Tortona,  Industria,  and  Novara 
are  insufficient  to  prove  that  it  attained  in  the 
remainder  of  the  country  any  wide-spread 
diffusion. 

It  is  certainly  remarkable  that  we  have  un- 
earthed far  richer  booty  in  the  wild  defiles 
of  the  Alps  than  in  the  opulent  plains  of 
upper  Italy.  At  Introbbio,  in  the  Yal  Sassina, 
to  the  east  of  Lake  Como,  in  the  Yal  Cam- 
onica,  watered  by  the  river  Oglio,  altars  were 
dedicated  to  the  invincible  god.  But  the 
monuments  which  were  consecrated  to  him  es- 
pecially abound  along  the  river  Adigc  (Etsch) 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  73 

and  its  tributaries,  near  the  grand  causeway 
which  led  in  antiquity  as  it  does  to-day  over 
the  Brenner  pass  and  Puster-Thal  to  the 
northern  slope  of  the  Alps  into  Rhaetia  and 
Noricum.  At  Trent,  there  is  a  mithrseum  built 
near  a  cascade;  near  San-Zeno,  bas-reliefs 
have  been  found  in  the  rocky  gorges;  at  Cas- 
tello  di  Tuenno,  fragments  of  votive  tablets 
carved  on  both  faces  have  been  unearthed; 
on  the  banks  of  the  Eisack,  there  has  been 
found  a  dedicatory  inscription  to  Mithra  and 
to  the  Sun;  and  Mauls  finally  has  given  us  the 
celebrated  sculptured  plaque  discovered  in 
the  sixteenth  century  and  now  in  the  museum 
at  Vienna. 

The  progress  of  Mithraism  in  this  moun- 
tainous district  was  not  checked  at  the  fron- 
tiers of  Italy.  If,  pursuing  our  way  through 
the  valley  of  the  Drave,  we  seek  for  the  ves- 
tiges which  it  left  in  this  region,  we  shall 
immediately  discover  them  at  Teurnia  and 
especially  at  Virunum,  the  largest  city  of 
Noricum,  in  which  in  the  third  century  two 
temples  at  least  had  been  opened  to  the  ini- 
tiated. A  third  one  was  erected  not  far  from 
the  same  place  in  a  grotto  in  the  midst  of  the 
forest. 

The  city  of  Aquileia*  was  undoubtedly  the 
religious  metropolis  of  this  Roman  colony, 
and  its  important  church  founded  many  mis- 
sions in  the   surrounding  region.     The  cities 

*Cf.  supra,  p.  67.     See  also  Frontispiece. 


74  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

that  sprang  up  along  the  routes  leading  from 
this  port  across  Pannonia  to  the  military 
strongholds  on  the  Danube  almost  without 
exception  favorably  received  the  foreign  god: 
they  were  /Emona,  the  Latobici,  Nevio- 
dunum,  and  principally  Siscia,  on  the  course 
of  the  Save;  and  then  toward  the  north 
Adrans,  Celeia,  Poetovio,  received  him  with 
equal  favor.  In  this  manner,  his  devotees 
who  were  journeying  from  the  shores  of  the 
Adriatic  to  Mcesia,  on  the  one  hand,  or  to 
Carnuntum  on  the  other,  could  be  received  at 
every  stage  of  their  journey  by  co-religionists. 
In  these  regions,  as  in  the  countries  south 
of  the  Alps,  Oriental  slaves  acted  as  the  mis- 
sionaries of  Mithra.  But  the  conditions  under 
which  their  propaganda  was  conducted  were 
considerably  different.  These  slaves  were  not 
employed  in  this  country,  as  they  were  in  the 
latifiindia  and  the  cities  of  Italy,  as  agricultural 
laborers,  or  stewards  of  wealthy  land-owners, 
or  municipal  employees.  Depopulation  had 
not  created  such  havoc  here  as  in  the  coun- 
tries of  the  old  civilization,  and  people  were 
not  obliged  to  employ  foreign  hands  for 
the  cultivation  of  their  fields  or  the  adminis- 
tration of  their  cities.  It  was  not  individuals 
or  municipalities,  but  the  state  itself,  that  was 
here  the  great  iniporter  of  human  beings. 
The  procurators,  the  officers  of  the  treasury, 
the  officers  of  the  imperial  domains,  or  as  in 
Noricum  the  governors  themselves,  had  under 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  75 

their  orders  a  multitude  of  collectors  of  taxes, 
of  treasurers,  and  clerks  of  all  kinds,  scattered 
over  the  territory  which  they  administered; 
and  as  a  rule  these  subaltern  officers  were 
not  of  free  birth.  Likewise,  the  great  entre- 
preneurs who  leased  the  products  of  the  mines 
and  quarries,  or  the  customs  returns,  employed 
for  the  execution  of  their  projects  a  numerous 
staff  of  functionaries,  both  hired  and  slave. 
From  people  of  this  class,  who  were  either 
agents  of  the  emperor  or  publicans  whom  he 
appointed  to  represent  him,  are  those  whose 
titles  recur  most  frequently  in  the  Mithraic  in- 
scriptions of  southern  Pannonia  and  Norlcum. 
In  all  the  provinces,  the  lowly  employees  of 
the  imperial  service  played  a  considerable 
"part  in  the  diffusion  of  foreign  religions.  Just 
'^s  these  officers  of  the  central  power  were 
representatives  of  the  political  unity  of  the 
empire  in  contrast  with  its  regional  particular- 
ism, so  also  they  were  the  apostles  of  the 
universal  religions  as  opposed  to  the  local  cults. 
They  formed,  as  it  were,  a  second  army  under 
the  orders  of  their  prince,  and  their  influence 
on  the  evolution  of  paganism  was  analogous 
to  that  of  the  army  proper.  Like  the  soldiers, 
they  too  were  recruited  in  great  numbers  from 
the  Asiatic  countries;  like  them,  they  too  were 
perpetually  changing  their  residence  as  they 
were  promoted  in  station;  and  the  lists  of 
their  bureaus,  like  those  of  the  legions,  com- 
prised individuals  of  all  nationalities. 


76  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

Thus,  the  imperial  administration  trans- 
ferred from  one  government  to  another, 
along  with  its  clerks  and  quartermasters,  a 
knowledge  of  the  Mithraic  Mysteries.  In  a 
characteristic  discovery  made  at  Caisarea  in 
Cappadocia,  a  slave,  probably  of  indigenous 
origin,  an  arcarius  dispciisatoris  Augiisti  (a 
clerk  of  the  imperial  treasury),  dedicates  in 
very  good  Latin  an  image  of  the  Sun  to 
Mithra,  In  the  interior  of  Dalmatia,  where 
the  monuments  of  the  Persian  god  are  rather 
sparsely  scattered  for  the  reason  that  this 
province  was  early  stripped  of  its  legions, 
employees  of  the  treasury,  the  postal  and  the 
customs  service,  left  nevertheless  their  names 
on  some  inscriptions.  In  the  frontier  prov- 
inces especially,  the  financial  agents  of  the 
Caesars  must  have  been  numerous,  not  only 
because  the  import  duties  on  merchandise  had 
to  be  collected  here,  but  because  the  heaviest 
drain  on  the  imperial  treasuries  was  the  cost 
of  maintaining  the  army.  It  is  therefore  nat- 
ural to  find  cashiers,  tax-gatherers,  and  reve- 
nue-collectors {dispcnsatorcs,  cxactoirs,  procura- 
tor es) ,  2.nd  o\.h.e.r  similar  titles  mentioned  in  the 
Mithraic  texts  of  Dacia  and  Africa. 

Here,  therefore,  is  the  second  way  in  which 
the  Iranian  god  penetrated  to  the  towns 
adjoining  the  military  camps,  where,  as  we 
have  seen,  he  was  worshipped  by  the  Oriental 
soldiers.  The  general  domestic  service,  as 
well  as  the  political  functions,  of  these  admin- 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  7/ 

Jstrators  and  officers,  was  the  cause  of  the 
transportation  of  pubHc  and  private  slaves  to 
all  garrisons;  while  the  constantly  renewed 
needs  of  the  multitudes  here  assembled 
attracted  to  these  points  merchants  and 
traders  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  Then 
again,  as  we  have  pointed  out,  the  veterans 
themselves  afterwards  settled  in  the  ports  and 
the  large  cities,  where  they  were  thrown  in 
contact  with  merchants  and  slaves.  In  affirm- 
ing categorically  that  Mithra  was  introduced 
in  this  or  that  manner  in  a  certain  region,  our 
generalization  manifestly  cannot  lay  claim  to 
absolute  exactitude.  The  concurrent  causes 
of  the  spread  of  the  Mysteries  are  so  inter- 
mingled and  intertwined,  that  it  would  be  a 
futile  task  to  attempt  to  unravel  strand  by 
strand  the  fibers  of  this  entangled  snarl.  Hav- 
ing as  our  sole  guide,  as  we  frequently  do, 
inscriptions  of  uncertain  date,  on  which  by  the 
side  of  the  name  of  the  god  appears  simply 
that  of  an  initiate  or  priest,  it  is  impossible  to 
determine  in  each  single  case  the  circum- 
stances which  have  fostered  the  progress  of 
the  new  religion.  The  more  fleeting  influences 
are  almost  absolutely  removed  from  our  ken. 
On  the  accession  of  Vespasian  (69  A.D.),  did 
the  prolonged  sojourn  in  Italy  of  Syrian  troops, 
who  were  faithful  worshippers  of  the  Sun,  have 
any  lasting  results?  Did  the  army  which 
Alexander  Severus  (222-235  A.D.)  conducted 
into  Germany,  and  which,  as  Lampridius  has 


78  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

recorded,*  was  potentissima  per  Armenios  et 
Osrhoeiios  ct  PartJws  (viz.,  very  largely  com- 
posed of  Armenians,  Osrhoenians,  and  Parthi- 
ans),  impart  a  new  impulse  to  the  Mithraic 
propaganda  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  ?  Did 
any  of  the  high  functionaries  that  Rome  sent 
annually  to  the  frontier  of  the  Euphrates 
embrace  the  beliefs  of  the  people  over  whom 
they  ruled  ?  Did  priests  from  Cappadocia  or 
Pontus  ever  embark  for  the  Occident  after 
the  manner  of  the  missionaries  of  the  Syrian 
goddess,  in  the  expectation  of  wresting  there 
a  livelihood  from  the  credulity  of  the  masses? 
Even  under  the  republic  Chaldaian  astrolo- 
gers roamed  the  great  causeways  of  Italy,  and 
in  the  time  of  Juvenal  the  soothsayers  of  Com- 
magene  and  Armenia  vended  their  oracles  in 
Rome.  These  subsidiary  methods  of  propa- 
gation, which  were  generally  resorted  to  by 
the  Oriental  religions,  may  also  have  been  put 
to  profitable  use  by  the  disseminators  of  Mith- 
raism;  but  the  most  active  agents  of  its  diffu- 
sion were  undoubtedly  the  soldiers,  the  slaves, 
and  the  merchants.  Apart  from  the  detailed 
proofs  already  adduced,  the  presence  of 
Mithraic  monuments  in  places  where  war  and 
commerce  were  constantly  conducted,  and  in 
the  countries  where  the  vast  current  of  Asiatic 
emigration  was  discharged,  is  sufficient  to 
establish  our  hypothesis. 

The  absence  of  these  monuments  in  other 

♦Lamprid.,  Alex.  Sev.,  c.  6i ;  cf.  Capitol.,  Maxiinin.,  c.  ii. 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  79 

regions  is  also  clear  proof  of  our  position. 
Why  are  no  vestiges  of  the  Persian  Mysteries 
found  in  Asia  Propria,  in  Bithynia,  in  Galatia, 
in  the  provinces  adjoining  those  where  they 
were  practised  for  centuries  ?  Because  the 
production  of  these  countries  exceeded  their 
consumption,  because  their  foreign  commerce 
was  in  the  hands  of  Greek  ship-owners,  because 
they  exported  men  instead  of  importing  them, 
and  because  from  the  time  of  Vespasian  at 
least  no  legion  was  charged  with  the  defence 
or  surveillance  of  their  territory.  Greece  was 
protected  from  the  invasion  of  foreign  gods  by 
its  national  pride,  by  its  worship  of  its  glorious 
past,  which  is  the  most  characteristic  trait  of 
the  Grecian  spirit  under  thee  mpire.  But  the 
absence  of  foreign  soldiers  and  slaves  also 
deprived  it  of  the  least  occasion  of  lapsing 
from  its  national  religion.  Lastly,  Mithraic 
monuments  are  almost  completely  missing  in 
the  central  and  western  parts  of  Gaul,  in  the 
Spanish  peninsula,  and  in  the  south  of  Britain, 
and  they  are  rare  even  in  the  interior  of  Dal- 
matia.  In  these  places  also  no  permanent 
army  was  stationed;  there  was  consequently 
no  importation  of  Asiatics;  while  there  was 
also  in  these  countries  no  great  center  of 
international  commerce  to  attract  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  city  of  Rome  is  espe- 
cially rich  in  discoveries  of  all  kinds,  more  so 
in  fact  than  any  of  the  provinces.  In  fact 
Mithra  found  in  no  other  part  of  the  empire 


80  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

conditions  so  eminently  favorable  to  the  suc- 
cess of  his  religion.  Rome  always  had  a  large 
garrison  made  up  of  soldiers  drawn  from  all 
parts  of  the  empire,  and  the  veterans  of  the 
army,  after  having  been  honorably  discharged, 
flocked  thither  in  great  numbers  to  spend  the 
remainder  of  their  days.  An  opulent  aristoc- 
racy resided  here,  and  their  palaces,  like  those 
of  the  emperor,  were  filled  with  thousands  of 
Oriental  slaves.  It  was  the  seat  of  the  central 
imperial  administration,  the  official  slaves  of 
which  thronged  its  bureaus.  Finally,  all  whom 
the  spirit  of  adventure,  or  disaster,  had  driven 
hither  in  search  of  fame  and  fortune  flocked 
to  this  "caravansary  of  the  universe,"  and  car- 
ried thither  their  customs  and  their  religions. 
Collaterally,  the  presence  in  Rome  of  num- 
bers of  Asiatic  princelings,  who  lived  there, 
either  as  hostages  or  fugitives,  with  their  fam- 
ilies and  retinues,  also  abetted  the  propagation 
of  the  Mazdean  faith. 

Like  the  majority  of  the  foreign  gods,  Mithra 
undoubtedly  had  his  first  temples  outside  of 
the  pomoermm,  or  religious  limits.  Many  of 
his  monuments  have  been  discovered  beyond 
these  boundaries,  especially  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  praetorian  camp;  but  before  the  year  i8i 
A.D.  he  had  overleaped  the  sacred  barriers 
and  established  himself  in  the  heart  of  the 
city.  It  is  unfortunately  impossible  to  follow 
step  by  step  his  progress  in  the  vast  metrop- 
olis.     Records  of  exact  date  and  indubitable 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  8l 

origin  are  too  scarce  to  justify  us  in  recon- 
structing the  local  history  of  the  Persian  relig- 
ion in  Rome.  We  can  only  determine  in  a 
general  way  the  high  degree  of  splendor 
which  it  attained  there.  Its  vogue  is  attested 
by  a  hundred  or  more  inscriptions,  by  more 
than  seventy-five  fragments  of  sculpture,  and 
by  a  series  of  temples  and  chapels  situated  in 
all  parts  of  the  city  and  its  environs.  The 
most  justly  celebrated  of  these  spelcra  is  the 
one  that  still  existed  during  the  Renaissance 
in  a  cave  of  the  Capitol,  and  from  which  the 
grand  Borghesi  bas-relief  now  in  the  Louvre 
was  taken.  (See  Fig.  4.)  To  all  appearances, 
this  monument  dates  from  the  end  of  the  sec- 
ond century. 

It  was  at  this  period  that   Mithra  emerged 
from   the   partial   obscurity  in  which    he    had 
hitherto  lived,  to  become  one  of  the  favorite 
gods  of  the  Roman  aristocracy  and  the  impe- 
rial court.     We  have  seen  him  arrive  from  the 
Orient    a  despised  deity  of   the  deported  or 
emigrant    Asiatics.       It    is    certain     that    he 
achieved  his  first  conquests  among  the  lower  ' 
classes  of  society,  and  it  is  an  important  fact  ? 
that  Mithraism  long  remained  the  religion  of  I 
the  lowly.     The  most  ancient  inscriptions  are 
eloquent  evidence  of  the  truth  of  this  asser- 
tion,   for   they   emanated   without    exception 
from  sl_aves  or  freedrnen.  frorn  soldiers  active, 
or  retired.      But  the  high  destinies  to  which 
Treedmen  were  permitted  to  aspire  under  the 


82  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

empire  are  well  known;  while  the  sons  of  vet- 
erans or  of  centurions  not  infrequently  became 
citizens  of  wealth  and  influence.  Thus,  by  a 
natural  evolution  the  religion  transplanted  to 
Latin  soil  was  bound  to  wax  great  in  wealth 
as  well  as  in  influence,  and  soon  to  count 
among  its  sectaries  influential  functionaries  at 
the  capital,  and  church  and  town  dignitaries 
in  the  municipalities.  Under  the  Antonines 
138-180  A.D.),  literary  men  and  philosophers 
began  to  grow  interested  in  the  dogmas  and 
rites  of  this  Oriental  cult.  The  wit  Lucian 
parodied  their  ceremonies*;  and  in  177  A.D. 
Celsus  in  his  True  Discourse  undoubtedly  pits 
its  doctrines  against  those  of  Christianity.f 
At  about  the  same  period  a  certain  Pallas 
devoted  to  Mithraism  a  special  work,  and  Por- 
phyry cites  a  certain  Eubulus  who  had  pub- 
lished Mithraic  RcscarcJiesX  in  several  books. 
If  this  literature  were  not  irrevocably  lost  to 
us,  we  should  doubtless  re-read  in  its  pages 
the  story  of  entire  Roman  squadrons,  both 
officers  and  soldiers,  passing  over  to  the  faith 
of  the  hereditary  enemies  of  the  empire,  and 
of  great  lords  converted  by  the  slaves  of  their 
own  establishments.  The  monuments  fre- 
quently mention  the  names  of  slaves   beside 


*Lucian,  Menipp.,  c.  6  ct  seq.  Cf.  Deo?-,  concil.,  c.  g;  Jnp. 
irag.,c.  8.  13  {T.  et  M.,  Vol.  II,  p.  22). 

fOrigen,  Contra.  Ci'/s.,  l.  9  {T.  ei  M.,  Vol.  IT,  p.  30). 

XPorphyr.,  De  ant?-,  nymph.,  c.  5  ;  Dc  abstin.,  II.  56,  IV.  16 
{cf.   T.  et  A/.,  Vol.  II,  p.  39  <!■/  stg.  and  I.,  p.  26  ct  scg. 


MITHRAISM    IN    THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE  83 

those  of  freedmen,  and  sometimes  it  is  the 
former  that  have  attained  the  highest  rank 
among  the  initiates.  In  these  societies,  the 
last  frequently  became  the  first,  and  the  first 
the  last, — to  all  appearances  at  least. 

One  capital  result  emerges  from  the  detailed 
facts  which  we  have  adduced.  It  is  that  the 
spread  of  the  Persian  Mysteries  must  have 
taken  place  with  extreme  rapidity.  With  the 
suddenness  of  a  flash  of  gunpowder,  they  make 
their  appearance  almost  simultaneously  in 
countries  far  removed  from  one  another:  in 
Rome,  at  Carnuntum  on  the  Danube,  and 
in  the  yi§^rz  Decuniates.  Manifestly,  this 
reformed  church  of  Mazdaism  exercised  on 
the  society  of  the  second  century  a  powerful 
fascination,  of  which  to-day  we  can  only 
imperfectly  ascertain  the  causes. 

But  to  the  natural  allurements  which  drew 
crowds  to  the  feet  of  the  tauroctonous  god  was 
added  an  extrinsic  element  of  the  highest 
efficacy:  the  imperial  favor.  '  Lampridius* 
informs  us  that  Commodus  (180-192  A.D.)  was 
initiated  into  the  Mysteries  and  took  part  in 
the  bloody  ceremonies  of  its  liturgy,  and  the 
inscriptions  prove  that  this  condescension  of 
the  monarch  toward  the  priests  of  Mithra  cre- 
ated an  immense  stir  in  the  Roman  world, 
and  told  enormously  in  favor  of  the  Persian 
religion.     From  this  moment  the  exalted  dig- 

♦Lamprid.,  Commod.,c.  <^  {T.  et  M.,  Vol.  II,  p.  21).  See 
infra,  Chap.  Ill,  p.  73. 


84  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

nitaries  of  the  empire  are  seen  to  follow  the 
example  of  their  sovereign  and  to  become 
zealous  cultivators  of  the  Iranian  cult.  Trib- 
unes, prefects,  legates,  and  later  perfectissimi 
and  darissimi,  are  frequently  mentioned  as 
authors  of  the  votive  inscriptions;  and  until 
the  downfall  of  paganism  the  aristocracy 
remained  attached  to  the  solar  god  that  had 
so  long  enjoyed  the  favor  of  princes.  But  to 
understand  the  political  and  moral  motives  of 
the  kindly  reception  which  these  dignitaries 
accorded  to  the  new  faith,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  expound  the  Mithraic  doctrines  concerning 
the  sovereign  power  and  their  connection  with 
the  theocratic  claims  of  the  Caesars. 


MITHRA  AND   THE   IMPERIAL  POWER  OF 
ROME. 

OWING  to  the  relatively  late  epoch  of 
their  propagation,  the  Mysteries  of 
Mithra  escaped  the  persecutions  that  had  been 
the  destiny  of  the  other  Oriental  cults  that 
had  preceded  them  in  Rome,  especially  that 
of  Isis.  Among  the  astrologers  or  "Chaldge- 
ans"  who  had  been  expelled  from  Italy  at 
various  times  under  the  first  emperors,  there 
may  possibly  have  been  some  that  rendered 
homage  to  the  Persian  gods;  but  these  wan- 
dering soothsayers,  who,  in  spite  of  the  pro- 
nunciamentos  of  the  senate,  which  were  as 
impotent  as  they  were  severe,  invariably  made 
their  appearance  again  in  the  capital,  no  more 
preached  a  definite  religion  than  they  consti- 
tuted a  regular  clergy.  When,  toward  the  end 
of  the  first  century,  Mithraism  began  to  spread 
throughout  the  Occident,  the  haughty  reserve 
or  outspoken  hostility  which  had  anciently 
characterized  the  attitude  of  the  Roman  policy 
toward:  foreign  missionaries  began  to  give  way 
to  a  spirit  of  benevolent  tolerance,  where  not 
of  undisguised  favor.  Nero  (54-68  A.D.)  had 
already  expressed  a  desire  to  be  initiated  into 
the  ceremonies  of  Mazdaism  by  the  Magi 
whom  King  Tiridates  of  Armenia  had  brought 

85 


86  THE    MYSTERIES   OF    MITHRA 

with  him  to  Rome,  and  this  last-mentioned 
prince  had  worshipped  in  Nero  an  emanation 
of  Mithra  himself. 

Unfortunately,  we  have  no  direct  informa- 
tion regarding  the  legal  status  of  the  associa- 
tions of  the  Cidtores  Soils  Invlctl  Mlthrcs.  No 
text  tells  us  whether  the  existence  of  these 
ybrotherhoods  was  at  first  simply  tolerated,  or 
whether,  having  been  recognized  by  the  State, 
they  acquired  at  the  outset  the  right  of  owning 

^  property  and  of  transacting  business.  In  any 
ev^nt,  it  is  quite  unlikely  that  a  religion  that 
had  always  counted  so  many  adherents  in  the 
administration  and  the  army  should  have  been 
left  by  the  sovereign  for  any  length  of  time  in 
an  anomalous  condition.  Perhaps,  in  order 
to  acquire  legal  standing,  these  religious  soci- 
eties were  organized  as  burial  associations,  and 
acquired  thus  the  privileges  accorded  to  this 
species  of  corporations.  It  would  appear, 
however,  that  they  had  resorted  to  a  still  more 
efficacious  expedient.  From  the  moment  of 
the  discovery  of  traces  of  the   Persian  cult  in 

\/ Italy,  we  find  it  intimately  associated  with  that 
of  the  Magna  Mater  (or  Great  Mother)  of  Pes- 
sinus,  which  had  been  solemnly  adopted  by  the 
Roman  people  three  centuries  before.  Fur- 
ther, the  sanguinary  ceremony  of  the  iaurobo- 
lurnz,  or  baptism  in  the  blood  of  a  bull,  which 
had,  under  the  influence  of  the  old  Mazdean 
belief,  been  adopted  into  the  liturgy  of  the 
Phrygian  goddess,  was  encouraged,  probably 


MITHRA    AND    THE    IMPERIAL    POWER  87 

from  the  period  of  Marcus  Aurellus  (161-180 
A.D.),  by  grants  of  civil  immunities.*  True, 
we  are  still  in  doubt  whether  this  association 
of  the  two  deities  was  officially  confirmed  by 
the  senate  or  the  prince.  Had  this  been  done, 
the  foreign  god  would  at  once  have  acquired 
the  rights  of  Italian  citizenship  and  would 
have  been  accorded  the  same  privileges  with 
Cybele  or  the  Bellona  of  Comana.  But  even 
lacking  all  formal  declaration  on  the  part  of 
the  public  powers,  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  Mithra,  like  Attis,  whom  he  had 
been  made  to  resemble,  was  linked  in  worship*^^ 
with  the  Great  Mother  and  participated  to  the 
full  in  the  official  protection  which  the  latter 
enjoyed.  Yet  the  clergy  appear  never  to  have  ^^ 
received  a  regular  donation  from  the  treasury, 
although  the  imperial  _/z.sy//.9  and  the  municipal 
coffers  were  in  exceptional  cases  opened  for 
their  benefit. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  second  century,  the 
more  or  less  circumspect  complaisance  with 
which  the  Caesars  had  looked  upon  the  Iran- 
ian Mysteries  was  suddenly  transformed  into  y 
effective  support.  Commodus  (180-192  A.D.) 
was  admitted  among  their  adepts  and  participa- 
ted in  their  secret  ceremonies,  and  the  discov- 
ery of  numerous  votive  inscriptions,  either  for 
the  welfare  of  this  prince  or  bearing  the  date  of 
his  reign,  gives  us  some  inkling  of  the  impetus 
which  this  imperial  conversion  imparted  to  the 

*See  the  Chapter  "Mithra  and  the  Religions  of  the  Empire." 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


MIthraic  propaganda.  After  the  last  of  the 
Antonine  emperors  had  thus  broken  with  the 
ancient  prejudice,  the  protection  of  his  succes- 
^°^l^^,£PH.L^J5.^^^ve  been  definitely  assured  to 


Fig.  19. 
PEDESTAL  FOUND  AT  CARNUNTUM. 

The  gift  of  Diocletian,  Valerius,  and  Licinius.    {T.  et 
M.,  p.  491.) 

the  new  religion.  From  the  first  years  of  the 
third  century  onward  it  had  its  chaplain  in  the 
palace  of  the  Augusti,  and  its  votaries  are  seen 
to  offer  vows  and  sacrifices  for  the  protection 
of  Severus   and   Philippus.     Aurelian  (270-275 


MITHRA    AND    THE    IMPERIAL    POWER  89 

A.D.),  who  instituted  the  official  cult  of  the 
Sol  invictiis,  could  have  had  only  sentiments  of 
sympathy  with  the  god  that  was  regarded  as 
identical  with  the  one  whom  he  caused  his 
pontiffs  to  worship.  In  the  year  307  A.D., 
Diocletian,  Galerius,  and  Licinius,  at  their 
conference  in  Carnuntum,  dedicated  with  one 
accord  a  temple  to  Mithra  y^?//^;^  imperii  siii 
(Figure  19),  and  the  last  pagan  that  occupied  the 
throne  of  the  Caesars,  Julian  the  Apostate,  was 
an  ardent  votary  of  this  tutelar  god,  whom  he 
caused  to  be  worshipped  in  Constantinople. 

Such  unremitting  favor  on  the  part  of  mon- 
archs  of  so  divergent  types  and  casts  of  mind 
cannot  have  been  the  result  of  a  passing 
vogue  or  of  individual  fancies.  It  must  have 
had  deeper  causes.  If  for  two  hundred  years 
the  rulers  of  the  empire  show  so  great  a  predi- 
lection for  this  foreign  religion,  born  among 
the  enemies  whom  the  Romans  never  ceased 
to  combat,  they  were  evidently  constrained  to 
do  so  by  some  reason  of  state.  In  point  of' 
fact,  they  found  in  its  doctrines  a  support  for 
their  personal  ..policy  and  a  staunch  advocacy! 
of  the  autocratic  pretensions  which  they  were 
so  energetically  endeavoring  to  establish. 
'  We  know  the  slow  evolution  which  gradually 
transformed  the  principate  that  Augustus  had 
founded  into  a  monarchy  existing  by  the  grace 
of  God.  The  emperor,  whose  authority  was 
theoretically  derived  from  the  nation,  was  at 
the  outset  simply  the  first  magistrate  of  Rome. 


90  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

As  the  heir  of  the  tribunes  and  as  supreme  pon- 
tiff, he  was,  by  very  virtue  of  his  office,  already 
inviolable  and  invested  with  a  sacred  charac- 
ter; but,  just  as  his  power,  which  was  originally 
limited  by  law,  ended  after  a  succession  of 
usurpations  in  complete  absolutism,  so  also 
by  a  parallel  development  the  prince,  the 
plenipotentiary  of  the  nation,  became  the  rep- 
resentative of  God  on  earth,  nay,  even  God 
himself  {douiinus  ci  dens).  Immediately  after 
the  battle  of  Actium  (31  B.C.),  we  see  arising 
a  movement  which  is  diametrically  opposed  to 
the  original  democratic  fiction  of  Caesarism. 
The  Asiatic  cities  forthwith  made  haste  to 
erect  temples  in  honor  of  Augustus  and  to 
render  homage  to  him  in  a  special  cult.  The 
monarchical  memories  of  these  peoples  had 
never  faded.  They  had  no  understanding  for 
the  subtle  distinctions  by  which  the  Italians 
were  endeavoring  to  overreach  themselves. 
For  them,  a  sovereign  was  always  a  king 
(^ao-tX-ev?)  and  a  god  (^eog).  This  transforma- 
tion  of  the  imperial  power  was  a  triumph  of 
the  Oriental  genius  over  the  Roman  mind, — 
the  triumph  of  the  religious  idea  over  the  con- 
ception of  law. 

Several  historians  have  studied  in  detail  the 
organization  of  this  worship  of  the  emperors 
and  have  shed  light  on  its  political  importance. 
But  they  have  not  discerned  so  clearly  perhaps 
the  nature  of  its  theological  foundation.  It  is 
not    sufficient   to    point   out   that   at  a  certain 


MITHRA    AND    THE    IMPERIAL    POWER  Ql 

epoch  the  princes  not  only  received  divine 
honors  after  their  death,  but  were  also  made 
the  recipients  of  this  homage  during  their 
reign.  It  must  be  explained  why  this  deifica- 
tion of  a  living  person,  how  this  new  species  of 
apotheosis,  which  was  quite  contrary  to  com- 
mon sense  and  to  sound  Roman  tradition,  was 
Th  the  end  almost  universally  adopted.  The 
sullen  resistance  of  public  opinion  was  over- 
come when  the  religions  of  Asia  vanquished 
the  masses  of  the  population.  These  religions 
propagated  in  Italy  dogmas  which  tended  to, 
Faise  the  monarchs  above  the  level  of  human- 
kind, and  if  they  won  the  favor  of  the  Caesars, 
and  particularly  of  those  who  aspired  to  abso- 
lute power,  it  is  because  they  supplied  a  dog- 
matic justification  of  their  despotism.  In  place 
of  the  old  principle  of  popular  sovereignty  was 
substituted  a  reasoned  faith  in  supernatural 
influence.  We  shall  now  essay  to  show  what 
part  Mithraism  played  in  this  significant  trans- 
formation, concerning  which  our  historical 
sources  only  imperfectly  inform  us. 

Certain  plausible  appearances  have  led  some 
people  to  suppose  that  the  Romans  drew  all 
ideas  of  this  class  from  Egypt.  Egypt,  whose 
institutions  in  so  many  directions  inspired  the 
administrative  reforms  of  the  empire,  was  also 
in  a  position  to  furnish  it  with  a  consummate 
model  of  a  theocratic  government.  According 
to  the  ancient  beliefs  of  that  country,  not  only 
did  the  royal  race  derive  its  origin  from  the 


92  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

sun-god  Ra,  but  the  soul  of  each  sovereign 
was  a  double  detached  from  the  sun-god 
Horus.  All  the  Pharaohs  were  thus  succes- 
sive incarnations  of  the  great  day-star.  They 
were  not  only  the  representatives  of  divinities, 
but  living  gods  worshipped  on  the  same  foot- 
ing with  those  that  traversed  the  skies,  and 
their  insignia  resembled  those  of  this  divinity. 

The  Achaimenides,  who  became  masters  of 
the  valley  of  the  Nile,  and  after  them  also  the 
Ptolemies,  inherited  the  homage  which  had 
been  paid  to  the  ancient  Egyptian  kings,  and 
it  is  certain  that  Augustus  and  his  successors, 
who  scrupulously  respected  all  the  religious 
usages  of  the  country  as  well  as  its  political 
constitution,  there  suffered  themselves  to  be 
made  the  recipients  of  the  same  character  that 
a  tradition  of  thirty  centuries  had  accorded  to 
the  potentates  of  Egypt. 

From  Alexandria,  where  even  the  Greeks 
themselves  accepted  it,  this  theocratic  doctrine 
was  propagated  to  the  farthest  confines  of  the 
empire.  The  priests  of  Isis  were  its  most  pop- 
ular missionaries  in  Italy.  The  proselytes 
whom  they  had  made  in  the  highest  classes  of 
society  became  imbued  with  it;  the  emperors, 
whose  secret  or  avowed  ambitions  this  attri- 
bute flattered,  soon  encouraged  it  openly. 
Yet,  although  their  policy  would  have  been 
favored  by  a  diffusion  of  the  Egyptian  doc- 
trine, they  were  still  impotent  to  impose  its 
tenets  at  once  and  unrestrictedly.     From  the 


MITHRA    AND    THE    IMPERIAL    POWER  93 

first  century  on  they  had  suffered  themselves 
to  be  called  dcus  noster  by  their  domestic  serv- 
ants and  their  ministers,  who  were  already 
half  Oriental,  but  they  had  not  the  audacity 
at  that  period  to  introduce  this  name  into 
their  official  titles.  Certain  of  the  Ccesars,  a 
Caligula  or  a  Nero,  could  dream  of  playing  on 
the  stage  of  the  world  the  role  which  the 
Ptolemies  pla3^ed  in  their  smaller  kingdom. 
They  could  persuade  themselves  that  differ- 
ent gods  had  taken  life  in  their  own  persons; 
but  enlightened  Romans  were  invariably 
outraged  at  their  extravagances.  The  Latin 
spirit  rebelled  against  the  monstrous  fiction 
created  by  the  Oriental  imagination.  The 
apotheosis  of  a  reigning  prince  encountered 
obstinate  adversaries  even  in  a  much  later 
time,  among  the  last  of  the  pagans.  For  the 
general  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  a  theory 
far  less  crude  than  that  of  the  Alexandrian 
epiphany  was  needed.  And  it  was  the  religion 
of  Mithra  that  furnished  this  doctrine. 

The  Persians,  like  the  Egyptians,  prostrated 
themselves  before  their  sovereigns,  but  they 
nevertheless  did  not  regard  them  as  gods. 
When  they  rendered  homage  to  the  "demon" 
of  their  king,  as  they  did  at  Rome  to  the 
"genius"  of  Ca;sar  [gciiius  Cccsans),  they  wor- 
shipped only  the  divine  element  that  resided  in 
every  man  and  formed  part  of  his  soul.  The 
majesty  of  the  monarchs  was  sacred  solely 
because   it  descended   to   them    from  Ahura- 


94  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

Mazda,  whose  divine  wish  had  placed  them  on 
their  throne.  They  ruled  "by  the  grace"  of 
the  creator  of  heaven  and  earth.  The  Iranians 
pictured  this  "grace"  as  a  sort  of  supernatural 
fire,  as  a  dazzling  aureole,  or  nimbus  of  "glory," 
which  belonged  especially  to  the  gods,  but 
which  also  shed  its  radiance  upon  princes  and 
consecrated  their  power.  The  Hvareno,  as  the 
Avesta  calls  it,  illuminated  legitimate  sover- 
eigns and  withdrew  its  light  from  usurpers  as 
from  impious  persons,  who  were  soon  destined 
to  lose,  along  with  its  possession,  both  their 
crowns  and  their  lives.  On  the  other  hand, 
those  who  were  deserving  of  obtaining  and 
protecting  it  received  as  their  reward  unceas- 
ing prosperity,  great  fame,  and  perpetual  vic- 
tory over  their  enemies. 

This  peculiar  conception  of  the  Persians  had 
no  counterpart  in  the  other  mythologies,  and 
the  foreign  nations  of  antiquity  likened  the 
Mazdean  "Glory,"  not  very  correctly,  to  For- 
tune. The  Semites  identified  it  with  their 
Gadd,  the  Grecians  translated  the  name  by 
^^vyy],  or  Tyche.  The  different  dynasties  that 
succeeded  the  fall  of  the  Achccmenides  and 
endeavored  to  trace  back  their  genealogy  to 
some  member  of  the  ancient  reigning  house, 
naturally  rendered  homage  to  this  special 
Tyche  whose  protection  was  at  once  the  con- 
sequence and  the  demonstration  of  their  legiti- 
macy. We  see  the  Hvarcno  honored  alike, 
and    for   the  same   motives,   by   the   kings  of 


MITHRA    AND    THE    IMPERIAL    POWER  95 

Cappadocia,  Pontus,  and  Bactriana;  and  the 
Seleucids,  who  long  ruled  over  Iran,  were  also 
regarded  as  the  proteges  of  the  Fortune  who 
had  been  sent  by  the  Supreme  God.  In  his 
burial  inscription,  Antiochus  of  Commagene 
appears  to  have  gone  so  far  as  to  identify  him- 
self with  the  goddess.  The  Mazdean  ideas 
concerning  monarchical  power  thus  spread  into 
Occidental  Asia  at  the  same  time  with  Mithra- 
ism.  But,  like  this  latter,  it  was  interwoven 
with  Semitic  doctrines.  The  belief  that  fatality 
gave  and  took  away  the  crown  again  made  its 
appearance  even  among  the  Achccmenides. 
Now,  according  to  the  Chaldaeans,  destiny  is 
necessarily  determined  by  the  revolution  of 
the  starry  heavens,  and  the  brilliant  celestial 
body  that  appears  to  command  all  its  com- 
rades was  considered  as  the  royal  star/«r  ex- 
cellence. Thus,  the  invincible  Sun  ("HXto?  clvi- 
Kr\To^,  identified  with  Mithra,  was  during  the 
Alexandrian  period  generally  considered  as  the 
dispenser  of  the  Hvareno  that  gives  victory. 
The  monarch  upon  whom  this  divine  grace  de- 
scended was  lifted  above  ordinary  mortals  and 
revered  by  his  subjects  as  a  peer  of  the  gods. 
After  the  downfall  of  the  Asiatic  principalities, 
the  veneration  of  which  their  dynasties  had 
been  the  object  was  transferred  to  the  Roman 
emperors.  The  Orientals  forthwith  saluted  in 
the  persons  oFThese  rulers  the  elect  of  God, 
to  whom  the  Fortune  of  kings  had  given 
omnipotent  power.     According  as  the  Syrian 


96  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

religions,  and  especially  the  Mysteries  of 
Mithra,  were  propagated  in  Rome,  the  ancient 
Mazdean  theory,  more  or  less  tainted  with 
Semitism,  found  increasing  numbers  of  cham- 
pions in  the  official  Roman  world.  We  see  it 
making  its  appearance  there,  at  first  timidly 
but  afterward  more  and  more  boldly,  in  the 
sacred  institutions  and  the  official  titles  of  the 
emperors,  the  meaning  of  which  it  alone  ena- 
bles us  to  fathom. 

Since  the  republican  epoch  the  "Fortune 
of  the  Roman  people"  had  been  worshipped 
under  different  names  at  Rome.  This  ancient 
national  cult  soon  became  impregnated  with 
the  beliefs  of  the  Orient,  where  not  only  every 
country  but  every  city  worshipped  its  own 
divine  Destiny.  When  Plutarch  tells  us  that 
Tyche  forsook  the  Assyrians  and  the  Persians, 
crossed  Egypt  and  Syria,  and  took  her  abode 
on  the  Palatine  Hill,  his  metaphor  is  true  in 
quite  a  different  sense  from  that  which  he  had 
in  mind.  Also  the  emperors,  imitating  their 
Asiatic  predecessors,  easily  succeeded  in  caus- 
ing to  be  worshipped  by  the  side  of  this  god- 
dess of  the  State,  that  other  goddess  who  was 
the  special  protectress  of  their  own  person. 
The  Foriuna  AMg;2isti  had  appeared  on  the 
coins  since  Vespasian,  and  as  formerly  the 
subjects  of  the  Diadochi,  so  now  those  of 
the  Cctsars,  swore  by  the  Fortune  of  their 
princes.  The  superstitious  devotion  of  these 
rulers   to  their  patron  goddess  was  so  great 


MITHRA    AND    THE    IMPERIAL    POWER  97 

that  in  the  second  century  at  least  they  con- 
stantly had  before  them,  even  during  sleep  or 
on  voyages,  a  golden  statue  of  the  goddess, 
which  on  their  death  they  transmitted  to  their 
successor  and  which  they  invoked  under  the 
name  of  Fortuna  reg'i'a,  a  translation  of  '^v^r) 
ySao-tXew?.  In  fact,  when  this  safeguard  aban- 
doned them  they  were  doomed  to  destruction 
or  at  least  to  reverses  and  calamities;  as  long 
as  it  abided  with  them,  they  knew  only  suc- 
cess and  prosperity. 

After  the  reign  of  Commodus  (180-192 
A. D.),  from  which  the  triumph  at  Rome  of  the 
Oriental  cults  and  especially  of  the  Mithraic 
Mysteries  dates,  we  see  the  emperors  offi- 
cially taking  the  titles  of  pms,fclix,  and  in- 
'vicius^._^\'\\c\\  appellations  from  the  third  cen- 
tury on  regularly  formed  part  of  the  imperial 
protocols.  These  epithets  were  inspired  by 
the  special  fatalism  which  Rome  had  bor- 
rowed from  the  Orient.  The  monarch  Is 
pi2(s  (pious)  because  his  devotion  alone  can 
secure  the  continuance  of  the  special  favor 
which  Heaven  has  bestowed  on  him;  he  is 
fclix,  happy,  or  rather  fortunate  {(Evrvyrii) ,  for 
the  definite  reason  that  he  is  illuminated  by 
the  divine  Grace;  and  finally  he  is  "invincible" 
because  the  defeat  of  the  enemies  of  the 
empire  is  the  most  signal  indication  that  his 
tutelary  "Grace"'  has  not  ceased  to  attend 
him.  Legitimate  authority  is  not  given  by 
heredity  or  by  a  vote  of  the  senate,  but  by  the 


98  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

gods;    and   it   is   manifested   in   the   shape  of 


victory. 

All  this  conforms  to  the  ancient  Mazdean 
ideas,  and  the  employment  of  the  last  of  the 
three  adjectives  mentioned  further  betrays  the 
influence  of  the  astrological  theories  which 
were  mingled  with  Parseeism.  Inviciiis,  'Ai/t- 
Kr]To<;,  is,  as  we  have  seen,  the  ordinary  at- 
tribute of  the  sidereal  gods  imported  from 
the  Orient,  and  especially  so  of  the  Sun.  The 
emperors  evidently  chose  this  appellation  to 
emphasize  their  resemblance  to  the  celestial 
divinity,  the  idea  of  whom  it  immediately 
evoked.  The  doctrine  that  the  fate  of  states, 
like  that  of  individuals,  was  inseparably  con- 
joined with  the  course  of  the  stars,  was  accom- 
panied with  the  corollary  that  the  chief  of  the 
planetary  bodies  was  arbiter  of  the  Fortune  of 
kings.  It  was  he  that  raised  them  to  their 
thrones,  or  deposed  them;  it  was  he  that 
assured  to  them  their  triumphs  and  visited 
upon  them  their  disasters.  The  Sun  is  re- 
garded as  the  companion  (coj/zcs)  of  the 
emperor  and  as  his  personal  saviour  {coiiscrua- 
toi-).  We  have  already  seen  that  Diocletian 
revered  in  Mithra  the  Jautor  iiJiperii  sni,  or 
patron  of  his  empire. 

In  assuming  the  surname  invictiis  (invincible), 
the  Caesars  formally  announced  the  intimate 
alliance  which  they  had  contracted  with  the 
Sun,  and  they  tended  more  and  more  to  em- 
phasize their  likeness  to  him.     The  same  rea- 


MITHRA    AND    THE    IMPERIAL    POWER  QQ 

son  induced  them  to  assume  the  still  more 
ambitious  epithet  of  "eternal,"  which,  having 
long  been  employed  in  ordinary  usage,  was  in 
the  third  century  finally  introduced  into  the 
official  formularies.  This  epithet,  like  the  first, 
is  borne  especially  by  the  solar  divinities  of  the 
Orient,  the  worship  of  whom  spread  in  Italy 
at  the  beginning  of  our  era.  Applied  to  the 
sovereigns,  it  reveals  more  clearly  than  the 
first-named  epithet  the  conviction  that  from 
their  intimate  companionship  with  the  Sun 
they  were  united  to  him  by  an  actual  identity 
of  nature. 

This  conviction  is  also  manifested  in  the 
usages  of  the  court.  The  celestial  fire  which 
shines  eternally  among  the  stars,  always  victo- 
rious over  darkness,  had  as  its  emblem  the 
inextinguishable  fire  that  burned  in  the  palace 
of  the  Ccesars  and  which  was  carried  before 
them  in  the  official  ceremonies.  This  lamp, 
constantly  lighted,  had  also  served  the  Persian 
kings  as  an  image  of  the  perpetuity  of  their 
power;  and  it  passed  with  the  mystical  ideas 
of  which  it  was  the  expression  to  the  Diado- 
chi,  and  from  them  to  the  Romans. 

Also,  the  radiate  crown  which,  in  imitation 
of  the  Seleucids  and  the  Ptolemies,  the  emper- 
ors had  adopted  since  Nero  as  the  symbol  of 
their  sovereignty,  is  fresh  evidence  of  these 
politico-religious  tendencies.  Symbolical  of 
the  splendor  of  the  Sun  and  of  the  rays  which 
he  gave  forth,  it  appeared  to  render  the  mon- 


100  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

arch  the  simulacrum  of  the  planet-god  whose 
brilliancy  dazzles  the  eyes. 

What  was  the  sacred  relation  established 
between  the  radiant  disc  which  illuminated  the 
heavens  and  the  human  image  which  repre- 
sented it  on  earth  ?  The  loyalist  zeal  of  the 
Orientals  knew  no  bounds  in  its  apotheosis. 
The  Sassanian  kings,  as  the  Pharaohs  before 
them,  proclaimed  themselves  "brothers  of  the 
sun  and  the  moon";  and  the  C^sars  were 
almost  similarly  regarded  in  Asia  as  the  suc- 
cessive Avatars  of  Helios.  Certain  autocrats 
approved  of  being  likened  to  this  divinity  and 
caused  statues  to  be  erected  that  showed  them 
adorned  with  his  attributes.  They  suffered 
themselves  even  to  be  worshipped  as  emana- 
tions of  Mithra.  But  these  insensate  preten- 
sions were  repudiated  by  the  sober  sense  of 
the  Latin  peoples.  As  above  remarked,  the 
Occident  studiously  eschewed  such  absolute 
affirmations;  they  were  content  with  meta- 
phors; they  were  fond  of  comparing  the  sover- 
eign who  governed  the  inhabited  world  and 
whom  nothing  that  occurred  in  it  could 
escape,  to  the  celestial  luminary  that  lighted 
the  universe  and  controlled  its  destinies.  They 
preferred  to  use  obscure  expressions  which 
admitted  of  all  kinds  of  interpretations.  They 
conceded  that  the  prince  was  united  with  the 
immortals  by  some  relation  of  kinship,  but 
they  were  chary  of  precisely  defining  its  char- 
acter.    Nevertheless,  the  conception  that  the 


MITHRA    AND    THE    IMPERIAL    POWER  lOI 

Sun  had  the  emperor  under  his  protection  and 
that  supernatural  effluvia  descended  from  the 
one  to  the  other,  gradually  led  to  the  notion 
of  their  consubstantiality. 

Now,  the  psychology  taught  in  the  Mysteries 
furnished  a  rational  explanation  of  this  con- 
substantiality  and  supplied  it  almost  with  a 
scientific  foundation.  According  to  these  doc- 
trines the  souls  pre-existed  in  the  empyrean, 
and  when  they  descended  to  earth  to  animate 
the  bodies  in  which  they  were  henceforward 
to  be  confined,  they  traversed  the  spheres  of 
the  planets  and  received  from  each  some  of 
its  planetary  qualities.  For  all  the  astrologers, 
the  Sun,  as  before  remarked,  was  the  royal 
star,  and  it  was  consequently  he  that  gave 
to  his  chosen  ones  the  virtues  of  sovereignty 
and  called  them  to  kingly  dominion. 

It  will  be  seen  immediately  how  these  theo- 
ries favored  the  pretensions  of  the  Caesars. 
They  were  lords  of  the  world  by  right  of  birth 
{deus  et  dominus  natiis),  because  they  had  been 
destined  to  the  throne  by  the  stars  from  their 
very  advent  into  the  world.  They  were  divine, 
for  there  were  in  them  some  of  the  elements 
of  the  Sun,  of  which  they  were  in  a  sense 
the  passing  incarnation.  Descended  from  the 
starry  heavens,  they  returned  there  after  their 
death  to  pass  eternity  in  the  company  of  the 
gods,  their  equals.  The  common  mortal 
pictured  the  emperor  after  his  death,  like 
Mithra   at   the   end  of   his   career,   as   borne 


102  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

heavenward    by    Helios    in    his    resplendent 
chariot. 

Thus,  the  dogmatology  of  the  Persian  Mys- 
teries combined  two  theories  of  different 
origin,  both  of  which  tended  to  lift  princes 
above  the  level  of  humankind.  On  the  one 
side,  the  ancient  Mazdean  conception  of 
Hvareno  had  become  the  "Fortune  of  the 
King,"  illuminating  him  with  celestial  grace 
and  bringing  him  victory.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  idea  that  the  soul  of  the  monarch,  at  the 
moment  when  destiny  caused  its  descent  to  the 
terrestrial  spheres,  received  from  the  Sun  its 
dominating  power,  gave  rise  to  the  contention 
that  its  recipient  shared  in  the  divinity  of  that 
\^star,  and  was  its  representative  on  earth. 

These  beliefs  may  appear  to  us  to-day  as 
absurd,  or  even  monstrous,  but  they  controlled 
nevertheless  for  centuries  millions  of  men  of 
the  most  different  types  and  nationalities, 
and  united  them  under  the  banner  of  the  same 
monarchical  faith.  If  the  educated  classes, 
who  through  literary  tradition  always  pre- 
served some  remnant  of  the  ancient  republican 
spirit,  cherished  a  measure  of  skepticism  in 
this  regard,  the  popular  sentiment  certainly 
accepted  these  theocratical  chimeras,  and 
suffered  themselves  to  be  governed  by  them 
as  long  as  paganism  lasted.  It  may  even  be 
said  that  these  conceptions  survived  the  break- 
ing of  the  idols,  and  that  the  veneration  of  the 
masses  as  well  as  the  ceremonial  of  the  court 


MITHRA    AND    THE     IMPERIAL    POWER  IO3 

never  ceased  to  consider  the  person  of  the 
sovereign  as  endued  with  essence  superhuman. 
Aurelian  (270-275  A.D.)  had  essayed  to  estab- 
Hsh  an  official  religion  broad  enough  to  em- 
brace all  the  cults  of  his  dominions  and  which 
would  have  served,  as  it  had  among  the  Per- 
sians, both  as  the  justification  and  the  prop  of 
imperial  absolutism.  His  hopes,  however, 
were  blasted,  mostly  by  the  recalcitrance  of 
the  Christians.  But  the  alliance  of  the  throne 
with  the  altar,  of  which  the  Ceesars  of  the 
third  century  had  dreamed,  was  realized  under 
another  form ;  and  by  a  strange  mutation  of  for- 
tune the  Church  itself  was  called  upon  to  sup- 
port the  edifice  whose  foundations  it  had  shat- 
tered. The  work  for  which  the  priests  of 
Serapis,  of  Baal,  and  of  Mithra  had  paved  the 
way  was  achieved  without  them  and  in  oppo- 
sition to  them.  Nevertheless,  they  had  been 
the  first  to  preach  in  Occidental  parts  the  doc- 
trine of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  and  had  thus 
become  the  initiators  of  a  movement  of  which 
the  echoes  were  destined  to  resound  even  "to 
the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time." 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  MITHRAIC 
MYSTERIES 

FOR  more  than  three  centuries  Mithraism 
was  practised  in  the  remotest  provinces 
of  the  Roman  empire  and  under  the  most 
diverse  conditions.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed 
for  a  moment  that  during  this  long  period 
its  sacred  traditions  remained  unchanged,  or 
that  the  philosophies  which  one  after  another 
swayed  the  minds  of  antiquity,  or  for  that 
matter  the  political  and  social  conditions  of 
the  empire,  did  not  exercise  upon  them  some 
influence.  But  undoubted  though  it  be  that 
the  Persian  Mysteries  underwent  some  modifi- 
cation in  the  Occident,  the  inadequacy  of  the 
data  at  our  disposal  prevents  us  from  following 
this  evolution  in  its  various  phases  and  from 
distinctly  defining  the  local  differences  which 
it  may  have  presented.  All  that  we  can  do  is 
to  sketch  in  large  outlines  the  character  of  the 
doctrines  which  were  taught  by  it,  indicating 
the  additions  and  revisions  which  they  ap- 
parently underwent.  Besides,  the  alterations 
that  it  suffered  were  largely  superficial.  The 
identity  of  the  images  and  hieratical  formulas 
of  the  most  remote  periods  and  places,  proves 
that  before   the   time  of   its   introduction  into 

the   Latin  countries   reformed  Mazdaism  had 

104 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES 


105 


already  consolidated  its   theology.     Contrary 
to  the  ancient  Grgeco-Roman  paganism,  which 


MITHRAIC  KRONOS  (.EON  OR 
ZERVAN   AKARANA)    REP- 
RESENTING BOUND- 
LESS   TIME. 

The  statue  here  repro- 
duced was  found  in  the 
mithraeum  of  Ostia  before 
mentioned,  where  C.  Vale- 
rius Heracles  and  his  sons 
dedicated  it  in  the  year  190 
A.D.  This  leontocephalous 
iigure  is  entirely  nude,  the 
body  being  entwined  six 
times  by  a  serpent,  the 
head  of  which  rests  on  the 
skull  of  the  god.  Four 
wings  decorated  with  the 
symbols  of  the  seasons  issue 
from  the  back.  Each  hand 
holds  a  key,  and  the  right 
in  addition  a  long  scepter, 
the  symbol  of  authority. 
A  thunderbolt  is  engraved 
on  the  breast.  On  the  base 
of  the  statue  may  be  seen 
the  hammer  and  tongs  of 
Vulcan,  the  cock  and  the 
pine  -  cone  consecrated  to 
.lEsculapius  (or  possibly  to 
the  Sun  and  to  Attis),  and 
the   wand  of   Mercury — all 


Fig.  20. 


characteristic  adjuncts  of  the  Mithraic  Saturn,  and  sym- 
bolizing the  embodiment  in  him  of  the  powers  of  all  the 
gods.     {T.  et  M.,  p.  238.) 

was    an   assemblage  of   practices    and   beliefs 
without  logical  bond,  Mithraism  had  a  genuine 


io6 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


Pig.  21. 

MITHRAIC    KRONOS    OF    FLORENCE. 

{T.  et  M.,  p.  259  ) 

I  t^eolojfy,  a  dogmatic  system,  ,vhich  borrowed 
frorn  saence  its  fundamental  principles. 

I  he  belief  appears  generally  to  prevail  that 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  10/ 

Mithra  was  the  only  Iranian  god  that  was 
introduced  into  the  Occident,  and  that  every- 
thing in  his  reHgion  that  does  not  relate 
directly  to  him  was  adventitious  and  recent. 
This  is  a  gratuitous  and  erroneous  supposition. 
IMIthra  was  accompanied  in  his  migrations  by 
a  large  representation  from  the  Mazdean  Pan- 
tlieon,  and  if  he  was  in  the  eyes  of  his  devo- 
tees the  principal  hero  of  the  religion  to  which 
he  gave  his  name,  jie^as  nevertheless  not  its  i 
Supreme  God. 

At  the  pinnacle  of  the  divine  hierarchy  and 
at  the  origin  of  things,  the  Mithraic  theology, 
the  heir  of  that  of  the  Zervanitic  Magi,  placed 
boundless  Time.  Sometimes  they  would  call  it  v^ 
A.la)v  or  Sa^culum,  Kp6vo<^  or  Saturnus;  but 
these  appellations  were  conventional  and  con- 
tingent, for  he  was  considered  ineffable,  bereft 
alike  of  name,  sex,  and  passions.  In  imita- 
tion of  his  Oriental  prototype,  he  was  repre- 
sented in  the  likeness  of  a  human  monster 
with  the  head  of  a  lion  and  his  body  envely- 
oped  by  a  serpent.  The  multiplicity  of  attri- 
butes with  which  his  statues  are  loaded  is  in 
keeping  with  the  kaleidoscopic  nature  of  his 
character.  He  bears  the  scepter  and  the  bolts 
of  divine  sovereignty  and  holds  in  each  hand 
a  key  as  the  monarch  of  the  heavens  whose 
portals  he  opens.  His  wings  are  symbolic  of 
the  rapidity  of  his  flight.  The  reptile  whose 
sinuous  folds  enwrap  him,  typifies  the  tortuous 
course  of  the  Sun  on  the  ecliptic;  the  signs  of 


io8 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


1 


I  Ig.  22. 

MITHRAIC    KRONOS   (^ON,    OR    INFINITE    TIME). 

Nude  leontocephalous  figure  standing  upright  on  a 
globe ;  in  each  hand  a  key ;  four  wings ;  thrice  entwined 
by  a  serpent,  the  head  of  which  passes  over  the  skull 
and  is  about  to  enter  the  mouth.  Sketched  by  Bartoli 
from  a  description  found  in  a  mithra;um  discovered  in 
the  i6th  century  in  Rome,  between  the  Quirinal  and 
the  Viminal.     (7".  e/  Jlf.,    Fig.  21,  p.  196.) 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  IO9 

the  zodiac  engraved  on  his  body  and  the 
emblems  of  the  seasons  that  accompany  them, 
are  meant  to  represent  the  celestial  and  ter- 
restrial phenomena  that  signalize  the  eternal 
flight  of  the  years.  He  creates  and_  destroys" 
all  things;  he  is  the  Lord  and  master  of  the 
tour  elements  that  compose  the  universe,  he 
virtually  unites  in  his  person  the  power  of  all 
the  gods,  whom  he  alone  has  begotten.  Some- 
times he  is  identified  with  Destiny,  at  others 
with  the  primitive  light  or  the  primitive  fire; 
while  both  conceptions  rendered  it  possible 
for  him  to  be  compared  with  the  Supreme 
Cause  of  the  Stoics, — the  heat  which  pervades 
all  things,  which  has  shaped  all  things,  and 
which  under  another  aspect  was  Fatality_ 
{ElfxapixevT]).     See  Figs.  20-23;  ^^so  Fig.  49.  . 

Xhe  preachers  of  Mithra  sought  to  resolve]^ 
the  grand  problem  of  the  origin  of  the  world 
by  the  hypothesis  of  a  series  of  successive 
generations.  The  first  principle,  according  to 
an  ancient  belief  found  in  India  as  well  as  in 
Greece,  begot  a  primordial  couple,  the  Heaven 
and  the  Earth;  and  the  latter,  impregnated  by 
her  brother,  gave  birth  to  the  vast  Ocean 
which  was  equal  in  power  to  its  parents,  and 
which  appears  to  have  formed  with  them  the 
supreme  triad  of  the  Mithraic  Pantheon.  The 
relation  of  this  triad  to  Kronos  or  Time  from 
which  it  had  sprung,  was  not  clearly  defined; 
and  the  starry  Heavens  of  which  the  revolu- 
tions determined,  as  was  believed,  the  course 


no 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


Fig.  23. 
MITHRAIC    LEONTOCEPHALOUS    KRONOS. 

Bas-relief  of  white  marble.  Found  in  the  same 
mithrseum  as  the  statue  of  Figure  22.  Naked  to  the 
waist;  the  limbs  clothed  in  wide  trousers;  the  arms 
extended ;  and  in  each  hand  a  torch.  From  the  back 
four  wings  issue,  two  pointing  upwards  and  two  down- 
wards, and  around  each  is  a  serpent.  Before  the  god 
is  a  circular  burning  altar,  and  from  his  mouth  a  band 
representing  his  breath  extends  to  the  fire  of  the  altar. 
{T.  et  J/.,  Fig.  22,  p.  196.) 


of   all   events,  appear   at    times   to  have   been 
confounded  with  the  eternal  Destiny. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  III 

These  three  cosmic  divinities  were  personi- 
fied under  other  names  less  transparent.  The 
Heavens  were  naught  less  than  Ormazd  or 
Jupiter,  the  Earth  was  identified  with  Spenta- 
Armaiti  or  Juno,  and  the  Ocean  was  similarly 
called  Apam-Napat  or  Neptune.  Like  the 
Greek  theogonies,  so  the  Mithraic  traditions 
narrated  that  Zeus  succeeded  Kronos,  the  king 
of  the  first  ages,  in  the  government  of  the 
world.  The  bas-reliefs  show  us  this  Mazdean 
Saturn  placing  in  the  hands  of  his  son  the 
thunderbolts  which  were  the  symbol  of  his 
sovereign  power.  Henceforward  Jupiter  with 
his  consort  Juno  was  to  reign  over  all  the 
other  gods,  all  of  whom  owe  to  this  couple 
their  existence. 

The  Olympian  deities  were  sprung  in  fact 
from  the  marriage  of  the  celestial  Jupiter  with 
the  terrestrial  Juno.  Their  eldest  daughter  is 
Fortune  {Fort una  priniigcnia),  who  bestows 
on  her  worshippers  every  grace  of  body  and 
every  beauty  of  soul.  Her  beneficent  gener- 
osity is  contrasted  with  Anangke,  which  repre- 
sents the  unalterable  rigor  of  fate.  Themis 
or  the  Law,  the  Moirx  or  the  Fates,  were 
other  personifications  of  Destiny,  which  mani- 
fests under  various  forms  a  character  which 
was  susceptible  of  infinite  development.  The 
sovereign  couple  further  gave  birth  not  only 
to  Neptune  who  became  their  peer,  but  to 
a  long  line  of  other  immortals:  Artagnes 
or  Hercules,  whose  heroic  deeds   the  sacred 


112  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

h3ai-ins  celebrated;  Shahrivar  or  Mars,  who 
was  the  god  of  the  metals  and  succored  the 
pious  warrior  in  his  combats;  Vulcan  or  Atar, 
the  genius  of  fire;  Mercury,  the  messenger  of 
Zeus;  Bacchus  or  Haoma,  the  personification 
of  the  plant  that  furnished  the  sacred  drink; 
Silvanus  or  Drvaspa,  protector  of  horses  and 
agriculture;  then  Anaitis,  the  goddess  of  the 
fecundating  waters,  who  has  been  likened  to 
Venus  and  Cybele  and  who,  presiding  over 
war,  was  also  invoked  under  the  name  of 
Minerva;  Diana  or  Luna,  who  made  the  honey 
which  was  used  in  the  purifications;  Vanainiti 
or  Nike,  who  gave  victory  to  kings;  Asha  or 
Arete,  perfect  virtue;  and  others  besides. 
This  innumerable  multitude  of  divinities  was 
enthroned  with  Jupiter  or  Zeus  on  the  sun- 
tipped  summits  of  Mt.  Olympus  and  com- 
posed the  celestial  court. 

Contrasted  with  this  luminous  abode,  where 
dwelt  the  Most  High  gods  in  resplendent  radi- 
ance, was  a  dark  and  dismal  domain  in  the 
bowels  of  the  earth.  Here  Ahriman  or  Pluto, 
born  like  Jupiter  of  Infinite  Time,  reigned  with 
Hecate  over  the  maleficent  monsters  that  had 
issued  from  their  impure  embraces. 

These  demoniac  confederates  of  the  Klnp-of 
Hell  then  ascended  to  the  assault  of  Heaven 
and  attempted  to  dethrone  the  successor  of 
Kronos;  but,  shattered  like  the  Greek  giants 
by  the  ruler  of  the  gods,  these  rebel  monsters 
were  hurled  backward   Into    the    abyss    from 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES 


"3 


Fig.  24. 

FRAGMENTS  OF  A  BAS-RELIEF  IN  WHITE  ITALIAN  MARBLE. 

Found  at  Virunum,  in  Noricum,  and  now  in  the 
Historical  Museum  Rudolfinum,  Klagenfurt,  Austria. 
The  central  part  of  the  monument  is  entirely  des- 
troyed; the  head  of  the  sun-god  from  the  left-hand 
corner  alone  having  been  left  (see  Fig.  11).  The  left 
border  represents  a  Hellenized  illustration  of  Ahura- 
Mazda's  struggle  with  demons,  after  the  manner  of 
the  gigantomachy.  The  lower  part  of  the  same  frag- 
ment exhibits  the  birth  of  Mithra.     ( T.  et  M.,  p.  336.) 


114  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

^which  they  had  risen  (Figure  24).  They  made 
their  escape,  however,  from  that  place  and 
wandered  about  on  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
there  to  spread  misery  and  to  corrupt  the 
hearts  of  men,  who,  in  order  to  ward  off  the 
evils  that  menaced  them,  were  obliged  to  ap- 
pease these  perverse  spirits  by  offering  them 
expiatory  sacrifices.  The  initiate  also  knew 
how  by  appropriate  rites  and  incantations  to 
enlist  them  in  his  service  and  to  employ  them 
against  the  enemies  whose  destruction  he  was 
meditating. 

The  gods  no  longer  confined  themselves  to 
the  ethereal  spheres  which  were  their  appa- 
nage. If  theogony  represents  them  as  gath- 
ered in  Olympus  around  their  parents  and 
sovereigns,  cosmology  exhibits  them  under 
another  aspect.  Their  energy  filled  the  w^orld, 
and  they  were  the  active  principles  of  its 
transformations.  Fire,  personified  in  the 
name  of  Vulcan,  was  the  most  exalted  of  these 
natural  forces,  and  it  was  worshipped  in  all 
its  manifestations,  whether  it  shone  in  the  stars 
or  in  the  lightning,  whether  it  animated  liv- 
ing creatures,  stimulated  the  growth  of  plants, 
or  lay  dormant  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  In 
the  deep  recesses  of  the  subterranean  crypts  it 
burned  perpetually  on  the  altars,  and  its  vota- 
ries were  fearful  to  contaminate  its  purity  by 
sacrilegious  contact. 

They  opined  with   primitive  artlessness  that 
fire    and   water  were  brother   and   sister,  and 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  11$ 

they  entertained  the  same  superstitious  respect 
for  the  one  as  for  the  other.  They  wor- 
shipped ahke  the  saline  floods  which  filled  the 
deep  seas  and  which  were  termed  indiffer- 
ently Neptune  and  Oceanus,  the  springs  that 
gurgled  from  the  recesses  of  the  earth,  the 
rivers  that  flowed  over  its  surface,  and  the 
placid  lakes  resplendent  in  their  limpid  sheen. 
A  perpetual  spring  bubbled  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  temples,  and  was  the  recipient  of  the 
homage  and  the  offerings  of  its  visitors.  This 
font  perennial  {fons  perennis)  was  alike  the 
symbolization  of  the  material  and  moral  boons 
that  the  inexhaustible  generosity  of  Infinite 
Time  scattered  throughout  the  universe,  and 
that  of  the  spiritual  rejuvenation  accorded  to 
wearied  souls  in  the  eternity  of  felicity. 

The  primitive  earth,  the  nourishing  earth, 
the  mother  earth  [terra  iJiafer),  fecundated  by 
the  waters  of  Heaven,  occupied  a  like  impor- 
tant place,  if  not  in  the  ritual,  at  least  in  the 
doctrine  of  this  religion;  and  the  four  cardinal 
winds  which  were  correlated  with  the  deified 
Seasons  were  invoked  as  genii  to  be  both  feared 
and  loved:  feared  because  they  were  the 
capricious  arbiters  of  the  temperature,  which 
brought  heat  or  cold,  tempests  or  calms, 
which  alternately  moistened  and  dried  the  at- 
mosphere, which  produced  the  vegetation  of  the 
spring  and  withered  the  foliage  of  the  autumn, 
— and  loved  as  the  diverse  manifestations  of 
the  air  itself,  which  is  the  principle  of  all  life. 


Il6  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

In  other  words,  Mithraism  deified  the  four 
simple  bodies  which,  according  to  the  physics 
of  the  ancients,  composed  the  universe.  An 
allegorical  group,  often  reproduced,  in  which 
a  lion  represented  fire,  a  cup  water,  a  ser- 
pent the  earth,  pictured  the  struggle  of  the 
opposing  elements,  which  were  constantly 
devouring  one  another  and  whose  perpetual 
transmutations  and  infinitely  variable  combi- 
nations provoked  all  the  phenomena  of  nature 

(Fig.  25). 

Hymns  of  fantastic  symbolism  celebrated 
the  metamorphoses  which  the  antitheses  of 
these  four  elements  produced  in  the  world. 
The  Supreme  God  drives  a  chariot  drawn  by 
four  steeds  which  turn  ceaselessly  round  in  a 
fixed  circle.  The  first,  which  bears  on  its 
shining  coat  the  signs  of  the  planets  and  con- 
stellations, is  sturdy  and  agile  and  traverses 
the  circumference  of  the  fixed  circle  with 
extreme  velocity;  the  second,  less  vigorous 
and  less  rapid  in  its  movements,  wears  a 
somber  robe,  of  which  one  side  only  is  illumi- 
nated by  the  rays  of  the  sun;  the  third  pro- 
ceeds more  slowly  still;  and  the  fourth  turns 
slowly  in  the  same  spot,  champing  restlessly 
its  steel  bit,  whilst  its  companions  move  round 
it  as  round  a  stationary  column  in  the  center. 
The  quadriga  turns  slowly  and  unimpeded,  reg- 
ularly completing  its  eternal  course.  But  at  a 
certain  moment  the  fiery  breath  of  the  first 
horse  falling  upon  the  fourth  ignites  its  mane, 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES 


117 


and  its  neighbor,  exhausted  by  its  efforts,  in- 
undates it  with  torrents  of  perspiration.      Fi- 


■^^h'v  f^  i  ■   >      ys.j 


Fig.  25. 

GRAND    MITHRAIC    BAS-RELIEF    OF    HEDDERNHEIM, 

GERMANY. 

In  the  center  Mithra  with  the  two  torch-bearers; 
immediately  above,  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac ;  immedi- 
ately above  these,  Mithra  aiming  his  arrow  at  the  rock 
(page  138);  below  the  bull  a  group  composed  of  the 
lion,  the  cup,  and  the  servant.  For  the  obverse  of  this 
bas-relief,  see  supra,  p.  54.     {T.  ei  AT.,  p.  364.) 

nally,  a  still   more    remarkable    phenomenon 
takes  place.     The  appearance  of  the  quartette 


Il8  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

is  transformed.  The  steeds  interchange  na- 
tures in  such  wise  that  the  substance  of  all 
passes  over  to  the  most  robust  and  ardent  of 
the  group,  just  as  if  a  sculptor,  after  having 
modelled  figures  in  wax,  had  borrowed  the 
attributes  of  one  to  complete  the  others,  and 
had  ended  by  merging  all  into  a  single  form. 
Then,  the  conquering  steed  in  this  divine 
struggle,  having  become  by  his  triumph  om- 
nipotent, is  identified  with  the  charioteer  him- 
self. The  first  horse  is  the  incarnation  of  fire 
or  ether,  the  second  of  air,  the  third  of  water, 
and  the  fourth  of  the  earth.  The  accidents 
which  befall  the  last-mentioned  horse,  the 
earth,  represent  the  conflagrations  and  inun- 
dations which  have  desolated  and  will  in  the 
future  desolate  our  world;  and  the  victory  of 
the  first  horse  is  the  symbolic  image  of  the 
final  conflict  that  shall  destroy  the  existing 
order  of  all  things. 

The  cosmic  quadriga,  which  draws  the  su- 
prasensible  Cause,  has  not  been  figured  in 
the  sacred  iconography.  The  latter  reserved 
for  a  visible  god  this  emblematic  group.  The 
votaries  of  Mithra,  like  the  ancient  Persians, 
adored  the  Sun  that  traversed  each  day  in  its 
chariot  the  spaces  of  the  firmament  and  sank 
at  dusk  extinguishing  its  fires  in  the  ocean. 
When  it  appeared  again  on  the  horizon,  its 
brilliant  light  scattered  in  flight  the  spirits  of 
darkness,  and  it  purified  all  creation,  to  which 
its  radiance  restored  life.     A  like  worship  was 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  1 19 

accorded  to  the  Moon,  which  voyaged  in  the 
spheres  above  on  a  cart  drawn  by  white  bulls. 
The  animal  of  reproduction  and  of  agriculture 
had  been  assigned  to  the  goddess  that  pre- 
sided over  the  increase  of  plants  and  the 
generation  of  living  creatures. 

The  elements,  accordingly,  were  not  the 
only  natural  bodies  that  were  deified  in  the 
Mysteries.  The  two  luminaries  that  fecun- 
dated nature  were  worshipped  here  the  same 
as  in  primitive  Mazdaism,  but  the  conceptions 
which  the  Aryas  formed  of  them  have  been 
profoundly  transformed  by  the  influences  of 
Chald?can  theories. 

As  we  have  already  said,*  the  ancient  belief 
of  the  Persians  had  been  forcibly  subjected  in 
Babylon  to  the  influence  of  a  theology  which 
was  based  on  the  science  of  its  day,  and  the 
majority  of  the  gods  of  Iran  had  been  likened 
to  the  stars  worshipped  in  the  valley  of  the 
Euphrates.  They  acquired  thus  a  new  char- 
acter entirely  different  from  their  original  one, 
and  the  name  of  the  same  deity  thus  assumed 
and  preserved  in  the  Occident  a  double  mean- 
Tng.  The  Magi  were  unsuccessful  in  harmon- 
izing these  new  doctrines  with  their  ancient 
religion,  for  the  Semitic  astrology  was  as 
irreconcilable  with  the  naturalism  of  Iran  as  it 
was  with  the  paganism  of  Greece.  But  look- 
ing upon  these  contradictions  as  simple  differ- 
ences of  degree  in  the  perception  of  one  and 

*See  supra,  page  10. 


120  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

the  same  truth,  the  clergy  reserved  for  the 
dite  exclusively  the  revelation  of  the  original 
Mazdean  doctrines  concerning  the  origin  and 
destiny  of  man  and  the  world,  whilst  the  mul- 
titude were  forced  to  remain  content  with  the 
brilliant  and  superficial  symbolism  inspired  by 
the  speculations  of  the  Chaldaians.  The  astro- 
nomical allegories  concealed  from  the  curiosity 
of  the  vulgar  the  real  scope  of  the  hieratic  rep- 
resentations, and  the  promise  of  complete  illu- 
mination, long  withheld,  fed  the  ardor  of  faith 
with  the  fascinating  allurements  of  mystery. 

The  most  potent  of  these  sidereal  deities, 
those  which  were  most  often  invoked  and  for 
which  were  reserved  the  richest  offerings,  were 
the  Planets.  Conformably  to  astrological  the- 
ories, the  planets  were  endowed  with  virtues 
and  qualities  for  which  it  is  frequently  difficult 
for  us  to  discover  adequate  reasons.  Each  of 
the  planetary  bodies  presided  over  a  day  of 
the  week,  to  each  some  one  metal  was  conse- 
crated, each  was  associated  with  some  one  de- 
gree in  the  initiation,  and  their  number  has 
caused  a  special  religious  potency  to  be  attrib- 
uted to  the  number  seven.  In  descending 
from  the  empyrean  to  the  earth,  the  souls,  it 
was  thought,  successively  received  from  them 
their  passions  and  qualities.  These  planetary 
bodies  were  frequently  represented  on  the 
monuments,  now  by  symbols  recalling  the 
elements  of  which  they  were  formed  or  the 
sacrifices  which  were  offered  to  them,  and  now 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES         121 

under  the  aspect  of  the  immortal  gods  throned 
on  the  Greek  Olympus:  Helios,  Selene,  Ares, 
Hermes,  Zeus,  Aphrodite,  Kronos.  But  these 
images  have  here  an  entirely  different  signifi- 
cation from  what  they  possess  when  they  stand 
for  Ahura-Mazda,  Zervan,  or  the  other  gods 
of  Mazdaism.  Then  the  personifications  of  the 
Heavens  or  of  Infinite  Time  are  not  seen  in 
them,  but  only  the  luminous  stars  whose  wan- 
dering course  can  be  followed  amid  the  con- 
stellations.  This  double  system  of  interpreta- 
tion was  particularly  applied  to  thQ_  Sun, 
conceived  now  as  identical  with  Mithra  and 
now  as  distinct  from  him.  In  reality  there 
were  two  solar  divinities  in  the  Mysteries,  one 
Iranian  and  the  heir  of  the  Persian  Hvare, 
the  other  Semitic,  the  substitute  of  the  Baby- 
lonian Shamash,  identified  with  Mithra. 

By  the  side  of  the  planetary  gods  who  have 
still  a  double  character,  purely  sidereal  divini- 
ties received  their  tribute  of  homage.  The 
"twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  which  in  their  daily 
revolution  subject  creatures  to  their  adverse 
influences,  were  represented  in  all  of  the 
mithrgeums  under  their  traditional  aspect 
(Fig.  26).  Each  of  them  was  without  doubt 
the  object  of  particular  veneration  during  the 
month  over  which  it  presided,  and  they  were 
customarily  grouped  by  threes  according  to 
the  Seasons  to  which  they  conformed  and  with 
the  worship  of  which  theirs  was  associated. 
(See  also  Fig.  49.) 


122 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


But  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac  were  not  the 
only  constellations  that  were  incorporated  by 
the  priests  in  their  theology.  The  astronom- 
ical   method   of    interpretation,   having   been 


Fig.  26. 

MARBLE    BAS-RELIEF    FOUND    IN    LONDON. 

In  the  center  the  tauroctonous  Mithra  with  the 
torch-bearers  surrounded  by  the  twelve  signs  of  the 
Zodiac.  In  the  lower  corners  busts  of  the  Winds ;  in 
the  upper  corners  the  Sun  on  his  quadriga  and  the 
Moon  on  a  chariot  drawn  by  bulls.  The  inscription 
reads:  Ulpius  Silvaniis  emeritus  leg{tonis)  II 
At(g{ttstae)  votum  solvit.  Facttis  Arausione  (that 
is,  honorably  discharged  at  Orange).   ( T.  et  71/.,  p.  389.) 

once  adopted  in  the  Mysteries,  was  freely 
extended  and  made  to  embrace  all  possible 
figures.  There  was  scarcely  any  object  or 
animal  that  was  not  in  some  way  conceived  as 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES 


123 


the  symbolic  image  of  a  stellar  group.  Thus 
the  raven,  the  cup,  the  dog,  and  the  lion,  that 
ordinarily  accompany  the  group  of  the  tauroc- 
tonous  Mithra,  were  readily  identified  with 
the  constellations  of  the  same  name.  The 
two  celestial  hemispheres  that  alternately  pass 
above  and  below  the  earth  were  personified 
and  likened  to  the  Dioscuri,  who,  according  to 


Fig.  27. 

MITHRAIC    CAMEO. 

After  Chiflet,  reproduced  from  C.  W.  King. 

the  Hellenic  fable,  lived  and  died  by  turns. 
Mythology  and  erudition  were  everywhere 
mingled.  The  hymns  described  a  hero  like 
the  Greek  Atlas  who  bore  on  his  untiring 
shoulders  the  globe  of  Heaven,  and  who  is 
regarded  as  the  inventor  of  astronomy.  But 
these  demi-gods  were  relegated  to  the  back- 
ground; the  planets  and  the  signs  of  the 
Zodiac  never  ceased  to  preserve  their  incon- 
testable primacy,  for  it  was  they  above  all 
others,  according  to  the  astrologers,  that  con- 


124 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


trolled  the  existence  of  men  and  guided  the 
course  of  things. 

This  was  the   capital  doctrine  that  Babylon 
introduced  into  Mazdaism:  belief  in  Fatality^ 


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the  conception  of  an  inevitable  Destiny  con- 
trolling the  events  of  this  world  and  insepara- 
bly conjoined  with  the  revolution  of  the  starry 
heavens.     This   Destiny,   identified   with   Zer- 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES         I25 

van,  became  the  Supreme  Being  which  engen- 
dered all  things  and  ruled  the  universe.  The 
development  of  the  universe  is  subject  to  im- 
mutable laws  and  its  various  parts  are  united 
in  the  most  intimate  solidarity.  The  position 
of  the  planets,  their  mutual  relations  and  ener- 
gies, at  every  moment  different,  produce  the 
series  of  terrestrial  phenomena.  Astrology,  of 
which  these  postulates  were  the  dogmas,  cer- 
tainly owes  some  share  of  its  success  to  the 
Mithraic  propaganda,  and  Mithraism  is  there- 
fore partly  responsible  for  the  triumph  in  the 
West  of  this  pseudo-science  with  its  long  train 
of  errors  and  terrors. 

The  rigorous  logic  of  its  deductions  assured 
to  this  stupendous  chimera  a  more  complete 
domination  over  reflecting  minds  than  the 
belief  in  the  infernal  powers  and  in  the  invo- 
cation of  spirits,  although  the  latter  com- 
manded greater  sway  over  popular  credulity. 
The  independent  power  attributed  by  Mazda- 
Jsm  to  the  principle  of  evil  afforded  justifica- 
tion for  all  manner  of  occult  practices.  Necro- 
Inancy,  oneiromancy,  belief  in  the  evil  eye  and 
in  talismans,  in  witchcraft  and  conjurations,  in 
fine,  all  the  puerile  and  sinister  aberrations  of 
ancient  paganism,  found  their  justification  in 
the  role  assigned  to  demons  who  incessantly 
interfered  in  the  affairs  of  men.  The  Persian 
Mysteries  are  not  free  from  the  grave  re- 
proach of  having  condoned,  if  not  of  having 
really  taught,  these  various  superstitions.    And 


126  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

the  title  "Magus"  became  in  the  popular  mind, 
not  without  good  reason,  a  synonym  for  "magi- 
cian." 

Yet  neither  the  conception  of  an  inexorable 
necessity  unpityingly  forcing  the  human  race 
toward  an  unknown  goal,  nor  even  the  fear  of 
malevolent  spirits  bent  on  its  destruction,  was 
competent  to  attract  the  multitudes  to  the 
altars  of  the  Mithraic  gods.  The  rigor  of 
these  somber  doctrines  was  tempered  by  a 
belief  in  benevolent  powers  sympathizing  with 
the  sufferings  of  mortals.  Even  the  planets 
were  not,  as  in  the  didactic  works  of  the  the- 
oretical astrologists,  cosmic  powers  whose  fa- 
vorable or  sinister  influence  waxed  great  or 
diminished  conformably  to  the  revolutions  of 
a  circle  fixed  for  all  eternity.  They  were,  as  in 
the  doctrine  of  the  old  Chald?can  religion, 
divinities  that  saw  and  heard,  that  rejoiced  or 
lamented,  whose  wrath  might  be  appeased,  and 
whose  favor  might  be  gained  by  prayers  and 
by  offerings.  The  faithful  reposed  their  con- 
fidence in  the  support  of  these  benevolent 
protectors  who  combated  without  respite  the 
powers  of  evil. 

The  hymns  that  celebrated  the  exploits  of 
the  gods  have  unfortunately  almost  all  per- 
ished, and  we  know  these  epic  traditions  only 
through  the  monuments  which  served  to  illus- 
trate them.  Nevertheless,  the  character  of 
this  sacred  poetry  is  recognizable  in  the  debris 
which  has  come  down  to  us.    Thus,  the  labors 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  12/ 

of  Verethraghna,  the  Mazdean  Hercules,  were 
chanted  in  Armenia.  It  is  told  here  how  he 
strangled  the  dragons  and  aided  Jupiter  in  his 
triumphant  combat  with  the  monstrous  giants; 
and  like  the  votaries  of  the  Avesta,  the 
Roman  adepts  of  Mazdaism  compared  him  to 
a  bellicose  and  destructive  boar. 

But  the  hero  that  enjoyed  the  greatest  role 
in  these  warlike  tales  was  Mithra.  Certain 
mighty  deeds,  which  in  the  books  of  Zoroas- 
trianism  were  attributed  to  other  divinities, 
were  associated  with  his  person.  He  had  be- 
come the  center  of  a  cycle  of  legends  which 
alone  explain  the  preponderant  place  that  was 
accorded  him  in  this  religion.  I^  is  because 
of  the  astounding  feats  accomplished  by  him 
that  this  god,  who  did  not  hold  supreme  rank 
in  the  celestial  hierarchy,  has  given  his  name 
to  the  Persian  Mysteries  that  were  dissernjz 
nated  in  the  Occident. 

Forjihe  ancient  Magi,  Mithra  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  god  of  light,  and  as  the  light  is 
borne  by  the  air  he  was  thought  to  inhabit  the 
Middle  Zone  between  Heaven  and  Hell,  and 
for  this  reason  the  name  of  /xecrtrr^?  was  given 
to  him.  In  order  to  signalize  this  attribute  in 
the  ritual,  the  sixteenth  or  middle  day  of  each 
month  was  consecrated  to  him.  When  he  was 
identified  with  Shamash,*  his  priests  in  invest- 
ing him  with  the  appellation  of  "intermediary" 
doubtless  had  in  mind  the  fact  that,  according 

♦See  supra,  page  lo. 


128 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


to  the  Chaldaean  doctrines,  the  sun  occupied 
the  middle  place  in  the  planetary  choir.  But 
this  middle  position  was  not  exclusively  a 
position  in  space;  it  was  also  invested  with  an 
important  moral  significance.     Mithra  was  the 


Fiy.  29. 

STATUES    OF    TORCH-BEARERS. 

(Museum  of  Palermo.      T.  ct  J/.,  p.  270.) 

"mediator"  between  the  unapproachable  and 
unknowable  god  that  reigned  in  the  ethereal 
spheres  and  the  human  race  that  struggled 
and  suffered  here  below.  Shamash  had  al- 
ready enjoyed    analogous  functions  in   Baby- 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  I29 

Ion,  and  the  Greek  philosophers  also  saw  in 
the  glittering  globe  that  poured  down  upon 
this  world  its  light,  the  ever-present  image  of 
the  invisible  Being,  of  whom  reason  alone 
could  conceive  the  existence. 

It  was  in  this  adventitious  quality  of  the 
genius  of  the  solar  light  that  Mithra  was  best 
known  in  the  Occident,  and  his  monuments 
frequently  suggest  this  borrowed  character. 
It  was  customary  to  represent  him  between 
two  youthful  figures,  one  with  an  uplifted,  the 
other  with  an  inverted,  torch.  These  youths 
bore  the  enigmatic  epithets  of  Cauti  and  Cau- 
topati,  and  were  naught  else  than  the  double 
incarnation  of  his  person  (Figs.  i8  and  29). 
These  two  dadophori,  as  they  were  called,  and 
the  tauroctonous  hero  formed  together  a  triad, 
and  in  this  "triple  Mithra"  was  variously  seen 
either  the  star  of  day,  whose  coming  at  morn 
the  cock  announced,  who  passed  at  midday 
triumphantly  into  the  zenith  and  at  night 
languorously  fell  toward  the  horizon;  or  the 
sun  which,  as  it  waxed  in  strength,  entered 
the  constellation  of  Taurus  and  marked  the 
beginning  of  spring, — the  sun  whose  conquer- 
ing ardors  fecundated  nature  in  the  heart 
of  summer  and  the  sun  that  afterwards,  en- 
feebled, traversed  the  sign  of  the  Scorpion 
and  announced  the  return  of  winter.  From 
another  point  of  view,  one  of  these  torch- 
bearers  was  regarded  as  the  emblem  of  heat 
and  of   life,  and  the  other  as  the  emblem  of 


130 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


cold  and  of  death.  Similarly,  the  taurocto- 
nous  group  was  variously  explained  with  the 
aid  of  an  astronomical  symbolism  more  ingen- 
ious than  rational.  Yet  these  sidereal  inter- 
pretations were  nothing  more  than  intellectual 
diversions  designed  to  amuse  the  neophytes 


Fig.  30. 
MITHRA  BORN  FROM  THE  ROCK. 

Bas-relief  found  in  the  crypt  of  St.  Clements  at  Rome. 
{T.  et  A/.,  p.  202.) 

prior  to  their  receiving  the  revelation  of  the 
esoteric  doctrines  that  constituted  the  ancient 
Iranian  legend  of  Mithra.  The  story  of  this 
legend  is  lost,  but  the  bas-reliefs  recount 
certain  episodes  of  it,  and  its  contents  appear 
to  have  been  somewhat  as  follows: 

The  light  bursting  from  the  heavens,  which 


V 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  I3I 

were  conceived  as  a  solid  vault,  became,  in  the 
mythology  of  the  Magi,  Mithra  born  from  the 
rock.  The  tradition  ran  that  the  "Generative 
Rock,"  of  which  a  standing  image  was  wor- 
shipped in  the  temples,  had  given  birth  to 
Mithra   on   the   banks  of   a   river,  under   the 


L  fLHtRMADJOS 

HOCMIHI  UDLN^. 

DOM     DLDl' 


/ 


Fig-  31- 

MITHRA  BORN  FROM  THE  ROCK. 

Holding  in  his  hand  the  Grape  which  in  the  West  replaced 
the  Haoma  of  the  Persians.     {T.  et  M.,  p.  231.) 

shade  of  a  sacred  tree,  and  that  shepherds 
alone,*  ensconced  in  a  neighboring  mountain, 
had  witnessed  the  miracle  of  his  entrance  into 
the  world.  They  had  seen  him  issue  forth 
from  the  rocky  mass,  his  head  adorned  with  a 
Phrygian  cap,  armed  with  a  knife,  and  carry- 

*See  the  lower  part  of  Fig.  24. 


132  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

ing  a  torch  that  had  illuminated  the  somber 
depths  below  (Fig.  30).  Worshipfully  the  shep- 
herds drew  near,  offering  the  divine  infant 
the  first  fruits  of  their  flock  and  their  harvests. 
But  the  young  hero  was  naked  and  exposed  to 
the  winds  that  blew  with  violence:  he  had 
concealed  himself  in  the  branches  of  a  fig-tree, 
and  detaching  the  fruit  from  the  tree  with  the 
aid  of  his  knife,  he  ate  of  it,  and  stripping  it  of 
its  leaves  he  made  himself  garments.  Thus 
equipped  for  the  battle,  he  was  able  hencefor- 
ward to  measure  his  strength  with  the  other 
powers  that  peopled  the  marvellous  world 
into  which  he  had  entered.  For  although  the 
shepherds  were  pasturing  their  flocks  when  he 
was  born,  all  these  things  came  to  pass  before 
there  were  men  on  earth. 

The  god  with  whom  Mithra  first  measured 
his  strength  was  the  Sun.  The  latter  was  com- 
pelled to  render  homage  to  the  superiority  of 
his  rival  and  to  receive  from  him  his  investiture. 
His  conqueror  placed  upon  his  head  the  radi- 
ant crown  that  he  has  borne  in  his  daily  course 
ever  since  his  downfall.  Then  he  caused  him 
to  rise  again,  and  extending  to  him  his  right 
hand  concluded  with  him  a  solemn  covenant 
of  friendship.  And  ever  after,  the  two  allied 
heroes  faithfully  supported  each  other  in  all 
their  enterprises  (Fig.  32). 

The  most  extraordinary  of  these  epic  adven- 
tures was  Mithra's  combat  with  the  bull,  the 
first  living  creature  created  by  Ormazd.    This 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHKAIC    MYSTERIES 


133 


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134  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

ingenious  fable  carries  us  back  to  the  very  be- 
ginnings of  civilization.  It  could  never  have 
risen  save  among  a  people  of  shepherds  and 


Fig-  33- 

THE  TAUROCTONOUS  (bULL-SLAYING)  MITHRA  AND 

THE  TAUROPHOROUS  (bULL-BEARING)  MITHRA; 

BETWEEN  THEM  THE  DOG. 

Clay  cup  found  at  Lanuvium.     (  T.  ft  J/.,  Fig.  80,  p.  247.) 

hunters  with  whom   cattle,  the   source   of   all 
wealth,  had    become    an    object    of  religious 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES         I35 

veneration.  In  the  eyes  of  such  a  people,  the 
capture  of  a  wild  bull  was  an  achievement  so 
highly  fraught  with  honor  as  to  be  apparently 
no  derogation  even  for  a  god. 

The  redoubtable  bull  was  grazing  in  a  pas- 
ture on  the  mountain-side;  the  hero,  resorting 
to  a  bold  stratagem,  seized  it  by  the  horns  and 
succeeded  in  mounting  it.  The  infuriated 
quadruped,  breaking  into  a  gallop,  struggled 
in  vain  to  free  itself  from  its  rider;  the  latter, 
although  unseated  by  the  bull's  mad  rush, 
never  for  a  moment  relaxed  his  hold;  he 
suffered  himself  to  be  dragged  along,  sus- 
pended from  the  horns  of  the  animal,  which, 
finally  exhausted  by  its  efforts,  was  forced  to 
surrender.  Its  conqueror  then  seizing  it  by  its 
hind  hoofs,  dragged  it  backwards  over  a  road 
strewn  with  obstacles  (Fig.  33)  into  the  cave 
which  served  as  his  home. 

This  painful  Journey  {Transit us)  of  Mithra 
became  the  synjLbol_oLiiut»afi'-&t^fferings.  But 
the  bull,  it  would  appear,  succeeded  in  making 
its  escape  from  its  prison,  and  roamed  again 
at  large  over  the  mountain  pastures.  The 
Sun  then  sent  the  raven,  his  messenger,  to 
carry  to  his  ally  the  command  to  slay  the 
fugitive.  Mithra  received  this  cruel  mission 
much  against  his  will,  but  submitting  to  the 
decree  of  Heaven  he  pursued  the  truant  beast 
with  his  agile  dog,  succeeded  in  overtaking  it 
just  at  the  moment  when  it  was  taking  refuge 
in  the  cave  which  it  had  quitted,  and  seizing  it 


136 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MlTHRA 


by  the  nostrils  with  one  hand,  with  the  other 
he  plunged  deep  into  its  flank  his  hunting- 
knife. 

Then  came  an  extraordinary  prodigy  to  pass. 


Fig.  34- 
TWO    BRONZE    PLAQUES    (vATICAN). 

The  one  to  the  left  has  the  head  of  Jupiter  (Sil- 
vanus?).  The  right  hand  holds  a  pine-cone,  the  left  a 
branch  entwined  by  a  serpent.  On  the  right  shoulder 
is  an  eagle,  and  the  breast  is  decorated  with  Mithraic 
figures  in  relief:  the  tauroctonous  Mithra,  a  cup,  the 
head  of  a  ram,  and  a  five-rayed  disc.  The  right-hand 
bust  is  that  of  a  bearded  Oriental  with  Phrygian  cap, 
holding  in  the  right  hand  a  pine-cone  and  in  the  left  a 
torch  entwined  by  a  serpent — a  crude  piece  of  work 
and  probably  of  Asiatic  origin.  {T.  ct  AT.,  Figs.  97 
and  98,  p.  260.) 

From  the  body  of  the  moribund  victim  sprang 
all  the  useful  herbs  and  plants  that  cover  the 
earth  with  their  verdure.  From  the  spinal 
cord  of  the  animal  sprang  the  wheat  that  gives 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES         I37 

US  our  bread,  and  from  its  blood  the  vine  that 
produces  the  sacred  drink  of  the  Mysteries. 
In  vain  did  the  Evil  Spirit  launch  forth  his 
1  unclean  demons  against  the  anguish-wrung 
animal,  in  order  to  poison  in  it  the  very  sources 
of  life;  the  scorpion,  the  ant,  the  serpent, 
strove  in  vain  to  consume  the  genital  parts 
and  to  drink  the  blood  of  the  prolific  quad- 
ruped; but  they  were  powerless  to  impede  the 
miracle  that  was  enacting.  The  seed  of  the 
bull,  gathered  and  purified  by  the  Moon,  pro- 
duced all  the  different  species  of  useful  ani- 
mals, and  its  soul,  under  the  protection  of  the 
dog,  the  faithful  companion  of  Mithra,  as- 
cended into  the  celestial  spheres  above,  where, 
receiving  the  honors  of  divinity,  it  became 
under  the  name  of  Silvanus  the  guardian  of 
herds.  Thus,  through  the  sacrifice  which  he 
had  so  resignedly  undertaken,  the  taurocto- 
nous  hero  became  the  creator  of  all  the  benefi- 
cent beings  on  earth;  and,  from  the  death 
which  he  had  caused,  was  born  a  new  life, 
more  rich  and  more  fecund  than  the  old. 

Meanwhile,  the  first  human  couple  had  been 
called  into  existence,  and  Mithra  was  charged 
with  keeping  a  watchful  eye  over  this  priv- 
ileged race.  It  was  in  vain  the  Spirit  of  Dark- 
ness invoked  his  pestilential  scourges  to  des- 
troy it;  the  god  always  knew  how  to  balk  his 
mortiferous  designs.  Ahriman  first  desolated 
the  land  by  causing  a  protracted  drought,  and 
its  inhabitants,  tortured  by  thirst,  implored  the 


138  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

aid  of  his  ever-victorious  adversar}^  The  di- 
vine archer  discharged  his  arrows  against  a 
precipitous  rock,  and  there  gushed  forth  from 
it  a  spring  of  Hving  water  to  which  the  sup- 
pHants  thronged  to  cool  their  parched  palates.* 
But  a  still  more  terrible  cataclysm  followed, 
which  menaced  all  nature.  A  universal  del- 
uge depopulated  the  earth,  which  was  over- 
whelmed by  the  waters  of  the  rivers  and  the 
seas.  One  man  alone,  secretly  advised  by  the 
gods,  had  constructed  a  boat  and  had  saved 
himself,  together  with  his  cattle,  in  an  ark 
which  floated  on  the  broad  expanse  of  waters. 
Then  a  great  conflagration  ravaged  the  world 
and  consumed  utterly  both  the  habitations 
of  men  and  of  beasts.  But  the  creatures  of 
Ormazd  also  ultimately  escaped  this  new  peril, 
thanks  to  celestial  protection,  and  hencefor- 
ward the  human  race  was  permitted  to  wax 
great  and  multiply  in  peace. 

The  heroic  period  of  history  was  now  closed, 
and  the  terrestrial  mission  of  Mithra  accom- 
plished. In  a  Last  Supper,  which  the  initiated 
commemorated  by  mystical  love  feasts,  he 
celebrated  with  Helios  and  the  other  compan- 
ions of  his  labors  the  termination  of  their  com- 
mon struggles.  Then  the  gods  ascended  to 
the  Heavens.  Borne  by  the  Sun  on  his  radiant 
quadriga,  Mithra  crossed  the  Ocean,  which 
sought  in  vain  to  engulf  him  (Fig.  35),  and 
took  up  his  habitation  with  the  rest  of  the  im- 

*See  supra,  p.  117,  Fig.  25,  and  infra,  p.  196,  Fig.  45. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  139 


***■-  'Tn    fi     --~-=g^»«-i*i 


Fig-  35- 


BAS-RELIEF    OF    APULUM,    DACIA. 


In  the  center,  the  tauroctonous  Mithra  with  the 
two  torch-bearers ;  to  the  left,  Mithra  mounted  on  the 
bull,  and  Mithra  taurophorous;  to  the  right,  a  lion 
stretched  lengthwise  above  a  cup  (symbols  of  fire  and 
water).  Upper  border:  Bust  of  Luna;  new-born 
Mithra  reclining  near  the  banks  of  a  stream ;  shepherd 
standing,  with  lambs;  bull  in  a  hut  and  bull  in  a  boat; 
underneath,  the  seven  altars;  Mithra  drawing  a  bow; 
bust  of  the  Sun.  Lower  border:  Banquet  of  Mithra 
and  the  Sun  ;  Mithra  mounting  the  quadriga  of  the 
Sun;  the  Ocean  surrounded  by  a  serpent.  (7!  et  Jf., 
p.  309.) 


V  140  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

mortals.  But  from  the  heights  of  Heaven  he 
never  ceased  to  protect  the  faithful  ones  that 
piously  served  him. 

This  mythical  recital  of  the  origin  of  the 
world  enables  us  to  understand  the  importance 
which  the  tauroctonous  god  enjoyed  in  his 
religion,  and  to  comprehend  better  what  the 
pagan  theologians  endeavored  to  express  by 
the  title  "mediator."  Mithra  is  the  creator  to 
whom  Jupiter-Ormazd  committed  the  task  of 
establishing  and  of  maintaining  order  in  na- 
ture. He  is,  to  speak  in  the  philosophical  lan- 
guage  oitlie  tirne£~the  Logos  that  emanated 
from  God  and  shared  His  omnipotence;  who, 
after  having  fashioned  the  world  as  demiurge, 
continued  to  watch  faithfully  over  it.  The 
primal  defeat  of  Ahriman  had  not  reduced  him 
to  absolute  impotence;  the  struggle  between 
the  good  and  the  evil  was  still  conducted  on 
earth  between  the  emissaries  of  the  sovereign 
of  Olympus  and  those  of  the  Prince  of  Dark- 
ness; it  raged  in  the  celestial  spheres  in  the 
opposition  of  propitious  and  adverse  stars,  and 
it  reverberated  in  the  hearts  of  men, — the  epit- 
omes of  the  universe. 

Life  is  a  battle,  and  to  issue  forth  from  it 
victorious  the  law  must  be  faithfully  fulfilled 
that  the  divinity  himself  revealed  to  the  an- 
cient Magi.  What  were  the  obligations  that 
Mithraism  imposed  upon  its  followers?  What 
were  those  "commandments"  to  which  its 
adepts  had  to  bow  in  order  to  be  rewarded  in 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  I4I 

the  world  to  come  ?  Our  incertitude  on  these 
points  is  extreme,  for  we  have  not  the  shadow 
of  a  right  to  identify  the  precepts  revealed  in 
the  Mysteries  with  those  formulated  in  the 
Avesta.  Nevertheless,  it  would  appear  certain 
that  the  ethics  of  the  Magi  of  the  Occident 
had  made  no  concession  to  the  license  of  the 
Babylonian  cults  and  that  it  had  still  preserved 
the  lofty  character  of  the  ethics  of  the  ancient 
Persians.  Perfect  purity  had  remained  for 
them  the  cult  toward  which  the  life  of  the 
faithful  should  tend.  Their  ritual  required 
repeated  lustrations  and  ablutions,  which  were 
believed  to  wash  away  the  stains  of  the  soul. 
This  catharsis  or  purification  both  conformed 
to  the  Mazdean  traditions  and  was  in  harmony 
with  the  general  tendencies  of  the  age.  Yield- 
ing to  thes_e  tendencies,  the  Mithraists  car- 
ried their  principles  even  to  excess,  and  their 
jdeals  of  perfection  verged  on  asceticism.  Ab- 
stinence from  certain  foods  and  absolute  con- 
tinence were  regarded  as  praiseworthy. 

Resistance  to  sensuality  was  one  of  the  as- 
pects of  the  combat  with  the  principle  of  evil. 
To  support  untiringly  this  combat  with  the 
followers  of  Ahriman,  who,  under  multiple 
forms,  disputed  with  the  gods  the  empire  of 
the  world,  was  the  duty  of  the  servitors  of 
Mithra.  Their  dualistic  system  was  partic- 
ularly adapted  to  fostering  individual  effort 
and  to  developing  human  energy.  They  did 
not  lose  themselves,  as  did  the  other  sects,  in 


142 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


contemplative  mysticism;  for  them,  the  good 
dwelt  in  action.  They  rated  strength  higher 
than  gentleness,  and  preferred  courage  to 
lenity.  From  their  long  association  with  bar- 
baric religions,  there  was  perhaps  a  residue  of 


DEO 
PROSALAA\PL!An 
AVG-N-DISP-BT 
SVA-SVORVMd 


PtlOTAS-VLhAR 
EIVS 


Fig.  36. 

votive  inscription  to  mithra  nabarze 

(victorious). 

Found  at  Sarmizegetusa.     (7^  et  A/.,  p.  2S1.) 

cruelty  in  their  ethics.  Aj^eligion  of^soldiers, 
Mithraism  exalted  the  military  virtues  above 
all  others. 


In   the  war  which   the  zealous  champion  of 
piety  carries  on  unceasingly  with  the  malign 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  I43 

demons,  he  is  assisted  by  Mithra.  Mithra^is 
the  god  of  help,  whom  one  never  invokes  in 
vain,  an  unfaiHno-  haven,  the  anchor  of  salva; 
tion  for  mortals  in  all  their  trials,  the  dauntless 
champion  who  sustains  his  devotees  in  their 
frailty,  through  all  the  tribulations  of  life.  As 
with  the  Persians,  so  here  he  is  still  the  de- 
fender of  truth  and  justice,  the  protector  of 
holiness,  and  the  intrepid  antagonist  of  the 
powers  of  darkness.  Eternally  young  and 
vigorous,  he  pursues  them  without  mercy; 
"always  awake,  always  alert,"  it  is  impossible 
to  surprise  him;  and  from  his  never-ceasing 
combats  he  always  emerges  the  victor.  This 
is  the  Idea  that  unceasingly  occurs  in  the  in- 
scriptions, the  idea  expressed  by  the  Persian 
surname  iVabarze  (Fig.  36),  by  the  Greek  and 
Latin  epithets  of  dviKrjTo^,  invictiis,  insiipe^'a- 
bilis.  As  the  god  of  armies,  Mithra  caused  his 
protdgds  to  triumph  over  their  barbarous  ad- 
versaries, and  likewise  in  the  moral  realm  he 
gave  them  victory  over  the  instincts  of  evil, 
inspired  by  the  Spirit  of  Falsehood,  and  he 
assured  them  salvation  both  in  this  world  and 
in  that  to  come. 

Like  all  the  Oriental  cults,  the  Persian  Mys 
teries  mingled  with  their  cosmogonic  fables 
and  their  theological  speculations,  ideas  of 
deliverance  and  redemption.  They  believed 
in  the_conscious  survival  after  death  of  the 
divine  essence  that  dwells  within  us,  and  in 
punishments  and   rewards  beyond   the   tomb. 


144  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

The    souls,    ot    which    an    infinite    muhitude 
peopled    the    habitations    of    the    Most   High, 
descended  here  below  to  animate  the  bodies 
of  men,  either  because  they  were  compelled 
by  bitter  necessity  to   fall   into   this   material 
and    corrupt     world,    or    because    they    had 
dropped  of  their  own  accord  upon  the  earth 
to  undertake  here  the  battle  against  the  de- 
mons.    When  after  death  the  genius  of  cor- 
ruption took  possession  of  the  body,  and  the 
soul   quitted   its   human   prison,  the   devas  of 
darkness  and  the   emissaries   of   Heaven  dis- 
puted   for   its   possession.      A  special   decree 
decided    whether    it    was    worthy   to    ascend 
again  into   Paradise.     If  it  was  stained  by  an 
impure  life,  the  emissaries  of  Ahriman  dragged 
it  down  to  the  infernal  depths,  where  they  in- 
flicted upon  it  a  thousand  tortures;  or  perhaps, 
as  a  mark  of  its  fall,  it  was  condemned  to  take 
up  its  abode  in  the  body  of  some  unclean  ani- 
mal.    If,  on  the  contrary,  its  merits  outweighed 
its  faults,  it  was  borne  aloft  to  the  regions  on 
high. 
-     The  heavens  were  divided  into  seven  spheres, 
each  of  which  was  conjoined  with  a  planet.    A 
sort  of  ladder,  composed  of  eight  superposed 
gates,  the  first  seven  of  which  were  constructed 
of  different  metals,  was  the  symbolic  sugges- 
tion in  the  temples,  of  the  road  to  be  followed 
to  reach  the  supreme  region  of  the  fixed  stars. 
To  pass  from  one  story  to  the  next,  each  time 
the  wayfarer  had  to  enter  a  gate  guarded  by 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  I45 

an  angel  of  Ormazd.  The  initiates  alone, 
to  whom  the  appropriate  formulas  had  been 
taught,  knew  how  to  appease  these  inexorable 
guardians.  As  the  soul  traversed  these  differ- 
ent  zones,  itTi3_itselt,  as  one  "would  of  gar- 
ments, of  the  passions  and  faculties  that  it  had 
received  in  its  descent  to  tHe~eart1ir^Tt  aban- 
doned to  the  Moon  its  vital  and  nutritive 
energy,  to  Mercury  its  desires,  to  Venus  its 
"wicked  appetites,  to  the  bun  its  intellectilaT 
"capacities,  to  Mars  its  love  ot  war,  to  Jupiter 
~its  ambitious  dreams,  to  Saturn  its  inclina- 
tions. It  was  naked,  stripped  of  every  vice 
and  every  sensibility,  when  it  penetrated  the 
eighth  heaven  to  enjoy  there,  as  an  essence 
supreme,  and  in  the  eternal  light  that  bathed 
the  gods,  beatitude  without  end.* 
_It  was  Mithra,  the  protector  of  truth,  that 
presided  over  the  judgment  of  the  soul  after 
its  decease.  It  was  he,  the  mediator,  that 
served  as  a  guide  to  his  faithful  ones  in  their 
courageous  ascent  to  the  empyrean;  he  was 
the  celestial  father  that  received  them  in  his 
resplendent  mansion,  like  children  who  had 
returned  from  a  distant  voyage. 

The  happiness  reserved  for  these  quintes- 
sentialized  monads  in  a  spiritual  world  is  rather 
difficult  to  conceive,  and  doubtless  this  doc- 
trine   had    but    feeble    attraction    for    vulgar 

♦This  Mithraic  doctrine  has  recently  been  compared  with 
other  analogous  beliefs  and  studied  in  detail  by  M.  Bossuet. 
"Die  Himmelreise  der  Seele"  {Af'chiv  fi'ir  Religionsivissen- 
schaft.  Vol.  IV.,  1901,  p.  160  ff.). 


146  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

minds.  Another  belief,  which  was  added  to 
the  first  by  a  sort  of  superfoetation,  offered  the 
prospect  of  more  material  enjoyment.  The 
doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  was 
rounded  off  by  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection 
of  the  flesh. 

_The  struggle  between  the  principles  of  goocl 
and  evil  is  not  destined  to  continue  into  all 
eternity.  When  the  age  assigned  for  its  dura- 
tion shall  have  rolled  away,  the  scourges  sent 
by  Ahriman  will  compass  the  destruction  of 
the  world.  A  marvellous  bull,  analogous  to 
the  primitive  bull,  will  then  again  appear  on 
earth,  and  Mithra  will  redescend  and  reawaken 
men  to  life.  All  will  sally  forth  from  the 
"tombs,  will  assume  their  former  appearance, 
and  recognize  one  another.  Humanity  entire 
will  unite  in  one  grand  assembly,  and  the  god 
of  truth  will  separate  the  good  from  the  bad. 
Then  in  a  supreme  sacrifice  he  will  immolate 
the  divine  bull;  will  mingle  its  fat  with  the 
consecrated  wine,  and  will  offer  to  the  just  this 
miraculous  beverage  which  will  endow  them 
all  with  immortality.  Then  Jupiter-Ormazd, 
yielding  to  the  prayers  of  the  beatified  ones, 
will  cause  to  fall  from  the  heavens  a  devour- 
ing fire  which  will  annihilate  all  the  wicked. 
The  defeat  of  the  Spirit  of  Darkness  will  be 
achieved,  and  in  the  general  conflagration 
Ahriman  and  his  impure  demons  will  perish 
and  the  rejuvenated  universe  enjoy  unto  all 
eternity  happiness  without  end. 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  I47 

We  who  have  never  experienced  the  Mith- 
raic  spirit  of  grace  are  apt  to  be  disconcerted 
by  the  incoherence  and  absurdity  of  this  body 
of  doctrine,  such  as  it  has  been  shown  forth  in 
our  reconstruction.  A  theology  at  once  naive  Jl^ 
and  artificial  here  combines/  primitive  myths j    ' 

the  naturalistic  tendency ]of  which  is  still  trans- 

-'^/  \  . 

garent,  with  anfastrological  systemjwhose  log- 
ical structure  only  serves  to  render  its  radical 
Talsity  all  the  more  palpable.  All  the  impos- 
sibilities of  the  ancient  polytheistic  fables  here 
subsist  side  by  side  with  philosophical  specu- 
lations on  the  evolution  of  the  universe  and 
the  destiny  of  man.  The  discordance  between 
tradition  and  reflection  is  extremely  marked 
here  and  it  is  augmented  by  the  contrariety 
between  the  doctrine  of  fatalism  and  that  of 
the  efficacy  of  prayer  and  the  need  of  worship. 
But  this  religion,  like  any  other,  must  not  be 
estimated  by  its  metaphysical  verity.  It  would 
in  become  us  to-day  to  dissect  the  cold  corpse 
of  this  faith  in  order  to  ascertain  its  inward 
organic  vices.  The  important  thing  is  to 
understand  how  Mithraism  lived  and  grew 
great,  and  why  it  failed  to  win  the  empire  of 
the  world. 

Its  success  was  in  great  part  undoubtedly-;^ 
due  to  the  vigor  of  its  ethics,  which  above  all 
tPitngs  favored  action.  In  an  epoch  of  anarchy 
and  emasculation,  its  mystics  found  in  its  pre- 
cepts both  stimulus  and  support.  The  cojivic- 
tion  that  the  faithful  ones  formed  part  of  a 


148  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

sacred  army  chargred  with  siisj^ajrnrKrwith  the 
Principle  of  Good  the  struggle  against  the 
power  of  evil,  was  singularly  adapted  to  pro- 
voking their  most  pious  efforts  and  transform- 
ing them  into  ardent  zealots.  ""  ""  ^"^ 
_JN^  The  Mysteries  exerted  another  powerful  in- 
'  fluence,  also,  in  fostering  some  of  the  most 
exalted  aspirations  of  the  human  soul:  the 
desire  for  immortality  and  the  expectation  of 
final  justice.  The  hopes  of  life  beyond  the 
tomb  which  this  religion  instilled  in  its  vota- 
ries were  one  of  the  secrets  of  its  power  in 
these  troublous  times,  when  solicitude  for  the 
life  to  come  disturbed  all  minds. 

But  several  other  sects  offered  to  their 
adepts  just  as  consoling  prospects  of  a  future 
life.  The  special  attraction  of  Mithraism 
dwelt,  therefore,  in  other  qualities  of  its  doc- 
trinal system.  Mithraism,  in  fact,  satisfied 
alike  both  the  intelligence  of  the  educated  and 
the  hearts  of  the  simple-minded.  The  apothe- 
osis of  Time  as  First  Cause  and  that  of  the 
Sun,  its  physical  manifestation,  which  main- 
tained on  earth  heat  and  light,  were  highly 
philosophical  conceptions.  The  worship  ren- 
dered to  the  Planets  and  to  the  Constellations, 
the  course  of  which  determined  terrestrial 
events,  and  to  the  four  Elements,  whose  infi- 
nite combinations  produced  all  natural  phe- 
nomena, is  ultimately  reducible  to  the  worship 
of  the  principles  and  agents  recognized  by 
ancient  science,  and  the  theology  of  the  Mys- 


DOCTRINE    OF    THE    MITHRAIC    MYSTERIES  I49 

teries  was,  in  this  respect,  nothing  but  the  re- 
ligious expression  of  the  physics  and  astronomy 
of  the  Roman  world.      50>tAC€_'. 

This  theoretical  conformity  of  revealed  dog- 
mas with  the  accepted  ideas  of  science  was 
calculated  to  allure  cultivated  minds,  but  it  had 
no  hold  whatever  upon  the  ignorant  souls  of 
Ittie  populace.  T^^se,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
eminently  amenable  to  the  allurements  of  a 
doctrine  that  deified  the  whole  of  physical  and 
tangible  reality.  The  gods  were  everywhere, 
and  they  mingled  in  every  act  of  life;  the  fire 
that  cooked  the  food  and  warmed  the  bodies 
of  the  faithful,  the  water  that  allayed  their 
thirst  and  cleansed  their  persons,  the  very  air 
that  they  breathed,  and  the  light  that  illumi- 
nated their  paths,  were  the  objects  of  their 
adoration.  Perhaps  no  other  religion  ever 
offered  to  its  sectaries  in  a  higher  degree  than 
Mithraism  opportunities  for  prayer  and  mo- 
tives for  veneration.  When  the  initiated  be- 
took himself  in  the  evening  to  the  sacred 
grotto  concealed  in  the  solitude  of  the  forests, 
at  every  step  new  sensations  awakened  in  his 
heart  some  mystical  emotion.  The  stars  that 
shone  in  the  sky,  the  wnnd  that  whispered  in 
the  foliage,  the  spring  or  brook  that  babbled 
down  the  mountain-side,  even  the  earth  that 
he  trod  under  his  feet,  were  in  his  eyes  divine, 
and  all  surrounding  nature  provoked  in  him  a 
worshipful  fear  for  the  infinite  forces  that 
swayed  the  universe. 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY,   CLERGY   AND 
DEVOTEES 

IN  ALL  the  religions  of  classical  antiquity 
there  is  one  feature  which,  while  formerly 
very  conspicuous  and  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant of  all  for  the  faithful,  has  to-day  al- 
most totally  disappeared.  It  is  their  liturgy. 
The  Mysteries  of  Mithra  form  no  exception  to 
this  unfortunate  rule.  The  sacred  books  which 
contain  the  prayers  recited  or  chanted  during 
the  services,  the  ritual  of  the  initiations,  and 
the  ceremonials  of  the  feasts,  have  vanished 
and  left  scarce  a  trace  behind.  A  verse  bor- 
rowed from  one  unknown  hymn  is  almost  all 
that  has  come  down  to  us  from  the  collections 
which  anciently  must  have  been  so  abundant. 
The  old  Gathas  composed  in  honor  of  the 
Mazdean  gods  were  translated  into  Greek 
during  the  Alexandrian  epoch,  and  Greek  re- 
mained for  a  long  time  the  language  of  the 
Mithraic  cult,  even  in  the  Occident.  Barbaric 
words,  incomprehensible  to  the  profane,  were 
interspersed  throughout  the  sacred  texts  and 
augmented  the  veneration  of  the  worshippers 
for  the  ancient  formulary,  as  well  as  their  con- 
fidence in  its  efficacy.  Such  were  the  epithets 
like  Nabarze,  "victorious,"  which  has  been  ap- 
plied  to    Mithra,   or  the    obscure    invocations 

150 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY 


151 


like  Nanta,  Nania    Sebesio,  engraved  on   our 
bas-reliefs,  which  have  never  yet  been  inter- 


Fig-  37. 

TAUROCTONOUS    MITHRA.       BAS-RELIEF    OF    WHITE 
MARBLE    (bologna). 

Important  for  its  accessory  figures.  In  the  center, 
the  dog,  serpent,  scorpion,  the  two  torch-bearers,  and 
above  the  one  to  the  left  the  raven.  Near  each 
torch-bearer  is  a  pine-tree  (?).  On  the  upper  border 
are  the  busts  of  the  seven  planets  in  the  following 
order  from  the  left:  The  Sun,  Saturn,  Venus,  Jupiter, 
Hermes,  Mars,  and  Luna.  The  lower  border,  three 
figures  at  a  banquet;  infant,  or  Eros(?);  bearded 
figure  reclining  (Oceanus).     ( T.  et  M.,  Fig.  99,  p.  261.) 

preted.  A  scrupulous  respect  for  the  tradi- 
tional practices  of  their  sect  characterized  the 
Magi  of  Asia  Minor,  and  continued  to  be  mani- 


152  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

fested  with  unabated  ardor  among  their  Latin 
successors.  On  the  downfall  of  paganism,  the 
latter  still  took  pride  in  worshipping  the  gods 
according  to  the  ancient  Persian  rites  which 
Zoroaster  was  said  to  have  instituted.  These 
rites  sharply  distinguished  their  religion  from 
all  the  others  that  were  practised  at  the  same 
time  in  Rome,  and  prevented  its  Persian  origin 
from  ever  being  forgotten. 

If  some  piece  of  good  fortune  should  one 
day  unearth  for  us  a  Mitliraic  missal,  we  should 
be  able  to  study  there  these  ancient  usages 
and  to  participate  in  imagination  in  the  cele- 
bration of  the  services.  Deprived  as  we  are  of 
this  indispensable  guide,  we  are  excluded 
utterly  from  the  sanctuary  and  know  the  eso- 
teric discipline  of  the  Mysteries  only  from  a 
few  indiscretions.  A  text  of  St.  Jerome,  con- 
firmed by  a  series  of  inscriptions,  informs  us 
that  there  were  seven  degrees  of  initiation  and 
that  the  mystic  (yxucrTr;?,  sacraf?is)  successively 
assumed  the  names  of  Raven  {corax),  Occult 
{cryphius),  Soldier  {uiilcs),  Lion  [Ico),  Persian 
\Perses),  Runner  of  the  Sun  {hcliodrou/us),  and 
Father"  (^(27^r).  These  strange  appellations 
were  not  empty  epithets  with  no  practical  bear- 
ing. On  certain  occasions  the  celebrants 
donned  garbs  suited  to  the  title  that  had  been 
accorded  them.  On  the  bas-reliefs  we  see 
them  carrying  the  counterfeit  heads  of  ani- 
mals, of  soldiers,  and  of  Persians.  (See  Fig. 
38,  p.  159)  "Some  flap  their  wings  like  birds,  imi- 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY  153 

tating  the  cry  of  crows;  others  growl  like 
lions,"  says  a  Christian  writer  of  the  fourth 
century;*  "in  such  manner  are  they  that  are 
called  wise  basely  travestied.'' 

These  sacred  masks,  of  which  the  ecclesias- 
tical writer  exhibits  the  ridiculous  side,  were 
interpreted  by  pagan  theologians  as  an  allusion 
to  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  and  even  to  the  doc- 
trine of  metempsychosis.  Such  divergences  of 
interpretation  simply  prove  that  the  real  mean- 
ing of  these  animal  disguises  was  no  longer 
understood.  They  are  in  reality  a  survival  of 
primitive  practices  which  have  left  their  traces 
in  numerous  cults.  We  find  the  titles  of  Bear, 
Ox,  Colt,  and  other  similar  names  borne  by 
the  initiates  of  the  different  Mysteries  in  Greece 
and  Asia  Minor.  They  go  back  to  that  pre- 
historic period  where  the  divinities  themselves 
were  represented  under  the  forms  of  animals; 
and  when  the  worshipper,  in  taking  the  name 
and  semblance  of  his  gods,  believed  that  he 
identified  himself  with  them.  The  lion-headed 
Kronos  having  become  the  incarnation  of 
Time,  was  substituted  for  the  lions  which  the 
forerunners  of  the  Mithraists  worshipped;  and 
similarly  the  cloth  and  paper  masks  with  which 
the  Roman  mystics  covered  their  faces  were 
substitutes  for  the  animal  skins  with  which 
their  barbarous  predecessors  originally  clothed 
themselves,  be  it  that  they  believed  they  thus 

*Ps.  Augustine,  Quaest.  vet.  et  novi  Test.,  {T.  et  M.,  Vol. 
II..  p.  8). 


154  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

entered  into  communion  with  the  monstrous 
idols  which  they  worshipped,  or  that,  in  en- 
veloping themselves  in  the  pelts  of  their  flayed 
victims,  they  conceived  these  bloody  tunics 
to  possess  some  purifying  virtue. 

To  the  primitive  titles  of  Raven  and  Lion 
others  were  afterward  added  for  the  purpose 
of  attaining  the  sacred  number  seven.  The 
seven  degrees  of  initiation  through  which  the 
mystic  was  forced  to  pass  in  order  to  acquire 
perfect  wisdom  and  purit}^  answered  to  the 
seven  planetary  spheres  which  the  soul  was 
forced  to  traverse  in  order  to  reach  the  abode 
of  the  blessed.*  After  having  been  Raven, 
the  initiates  were  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
Occult  {Kpv(f)Lo<5).  The  members  of  this  class, 
hidden  by  some  veil,  probably  remained  in- 
visible to  the  rest  of  the  congregation.  To 
exhibit  them  {ostcudcrc)  constituted  a  solemn 
act.  The  Soldier  {nii'les)  formed  part  of  the 
sacred  militia  of  the  invincible  god  and  waged 
war  under  his  directions  on  the  powers  of  evil. 
The  dignity  of  Persian  recalled  the  first  origin 
of  the  Mazdean  religion,  and  he  who  obtained 
it  assumed  during  the  sacred  ceremonies  the 
Oriental  custom  of  donning  the  Phrygian  cap, 
which  had  also  been  bestowed  on  JMithra.  The 
latter  having  been  identified  with  the  Sun,  his 
servitors  invested  themselves  with  the  name 
of  Runners  of  the  Sun  fHXto8/3o/x.ot);  lastly,  the 
title  "Fathers"  was  borrowed  from  the  Greek 

*See  supra,  p.  144. 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY  I55 

Thiasi,  where  this  honorific  appellation  fre- 
quently designated  the  directors  of  the  com- 
munity. 

In  this  septuple  division  of  the  deities,  cer- 
tain additional  distinctions  were  established. 
"  We  may  conclude  from  a  passage  in  PorpTiyry 
that  the  taking  of  the  first  three  degrees  did 
not  authorize  participation  in  the  Mysteries. 
These  initiates,  comparable  to  the  Christian 
catechumens,  were  the  Servants  {vir-qpeTovvTe^). 
To  enter  this  order  it  was  sufficient  to  have 
been  admitted  to  the  Ravens,  doubtless  so 
called  because  mythology  made  the  raven  the 
servitor  of  the  Sun.  Only  the  mystics  that  had 
received  the  Leontics  became  Participants 
[ixere^ovre^),  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  the 
grade  of  Leo  is  mentioned  more  frequently  in 
the  inscriptions  than  any  other.  Finally,  at 
the  summit  of  the  hierarchy  were  placed  the 
Fathers,_who  appear  to  have  presided  oyer 
the  sacred  ceremonies  (  ^ater  sacroriuu)  and  to 
have  commanded  the  other  classes  of  the 
J[aithful.  The  head_of  the  Fathers  thejns^lyes 
bore  the  name  of  Pater  Patruni,  sometimes 
transformed  into  Pater_  patratus,  in  order  to 
introduce  an  official  sacerdotal  title  into  a_sect 
vdiich  had  become  Roman.  These  grand- 
masters of  the  adepts  retained  until  their  death 
the  general  direction  of  the  cult.  The  rever- 
ence and  affection  which  were  entertained  for 
these  venerable  dignitaries  are  indicated  by 
their  name  of  Father,  and  the  mystics  placed 


156  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

under  their  authority  were  called  brethren  by 
one  another,  because  the  fellow-initiates  {con- 
sacranei)  were  expected  to  cherish  mutual  af- 
fection.* 

Admission  [acceptio)  to  the  lower  orders  could 
be  accorded  even  to  children.  We  do  not 
know  whether  the  initiates  were  obliged  to 
remain  in  any  one  of  the  grades  for  a  fixed 
length  of  time.  The  Fathers  probably  decided 
when  the  novice  was  sufficiently  prepared  to 
receive  the  higher  initiation,  which  they  con- 
ferred in  person  {tradcrc). 

This  ceremony  of  initiation  appears  to  have 
borne  the  name  of  sacrament  [sacramcniuni), 
doubtless  because  of  the  oath  which  the  neo- 
phyte took  and  which  was  compared  to  that 
made  by  the  conscripts  enrolled  in  the  army. 
The  candidate  engaged  above  all  things  not  to 
divulge  the  doctrines  and  the  rites  revealed  to 
him,  but  other  and  more  special  vows  were 
exacted  of  him.  Thus,  the  mystic  that  aspired 
to  the  title  of  Miles  was  presented  with  a 
crown  on  a  sword.  He  thrust  it  back  with  his 
hand  and  caused  it  to  fall  on  his  shoulder,  say- 
ing that  Mithra  was  his  only  crown.  There- 
after, he  never  wore  one,  neither  at  banquets 
nor  when  it  was  awarded  to  him  as  a  military 
honor,  replying  to  the  person  who  conferred 
it:  "It  belongs  to  my  god,"  that  is  to  say,  to 
the  invincible  god. 

We  are  as  poorly  acquainted  with  the  liturgy 

♦See  infra,  p.  190,  footnote. 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY  157 

of  the  seven  Mithralc  sacraments  as  we  are 
with  the  dogmatic  instructions  that  accom- 
panied them.  We  know,  however,  that  con- 
formably to  the  ancient  jranian  rites,  repeate 
ablutions  were  prescribed  to  neophytes  as  a 
^ind^f  baptism  designed  to  wash  away  their^ 
guilty  stains.  As  with  a  certain  class  of  Gnos-^ 
tics,  this  lustration  doubtless  had  different 
effects  at  each  stage  of  initiation,  and  it  might 
consist  according  to  circumstances  either  in  a 
simple  sprinkling  of  holy  water,  or  in  an  actual 
immersion  as  in  the  cult  of  Isis. 

Tertullian  also  compared  the  confirmation 
of  his  co-religionists  to  the  ceremony  in  which 
they  '.Islgned"  the  forehead  of  the  soldier.  It 
appears,  however,  that  the  sign  or  seal  im- 
pressed was  not,  as  in  the  Christian  liturgy,  an 
unction,  but  a  marj^liurned  with  a  red-hot  iron 
like  that  applied  in  the  army  to  recruits  be- 
fore they  were  admitted  to  the  oath.  This 
Indelible  imprint  perpetuated  the  memory  of 
the  solemn  engagement  by  which  the  person 
under  vow  contracted  to  serve  in  that  order  of 
chivalry  which  Mithraism  constituted.  On 
reception  among  the  Lions,  there  were  new 
purifications.  But  this  animal  being  the  em- 
blem of  the  principle  of  fire,  the  use  of  water, 
the  element  hostile  to  fire,  was  renounced; 
and,  in  order  to  preserve  the  initiate  from  the 
blemish  of  sin,  honey  was  poured  on  his  hands 
and  applied  to  his  tongue,  as  was  the  custom 
with  new-born   children.      It  was  honey  also 


158  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

that  was  presented  to  the  Persian  because  of 
its  preservative  virtue,  as  Porphyry  tells  us;* 
in  fact,  marvellous  properties  appear  to  have 
been  associated  with  this  substance,  which  was 
believed  to  have  been  produced  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  moon.  According  to  the  ancient 
ideas,  it  was  the  food  of  the  blessed,  and  its 
absorption  by  the  neophyte  made  him  a  peer 
of  the  gods.f 

In  the  Mazdean  service,  the  celebrant  con- 
f  secrated  the  bread  and  the  water  which  he 
mingled  with  the  intoxicating  juice  of  the 
Haoma  prepared  by  him,  and  he  consumed 
these  foods  during  the  performance  of  his  sac- 
rifice. These  ancient  usages  were  preserved 
in  the  Mithraic  initiations,  save  that  for  the 
Haoma,  a  plant  unknown  in  the  Occident,  was 
substituted  the  juice  of  the  vine.  A  loaf  of 
bread  and  a  goblet  of  water  were  placed  before 
the  mystic,  over  which  the  priest  pronounced 
the  sacred  formula.  This  oblation  of  bread 
and  water,  with  which  undoubtedly  wine  was 
afterward  mixed,  is  compared  by  the  apolo- 
lgists  to  the  Christian  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  Like  the  latter,  it  was  not  granted 
luntil  after  a  long  novitiate.  It  is  probable 
that  only  those  initiates  who  had  attained  the 
degree  of  Lions  were  admitted  to  it,  and  that 
this  is  the  reason  that  the  name  of  "Partici- 

*Porph.,  De  aniro  nyvph.,  c.  15  (7".  et  M.,  Vol.  II.,  p.  40). 
fThe  liturgic  use  of  honey  lias  recently  been  elucidated  by 
Usener,  "Milch  und  Honig"  [Hcnius,  LVII),  1902,  p.  177  ff. 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY 


159 


QJ     in 


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Sv 

<U    i-» 

rP  ,5: 

-^  S 

13     : 

G  S( 

d  '=^ 

u   "Si 

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o 

z 

m  /-s 

H) 

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CO 

o 
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P^ 


l60  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

pants"  was  given  to  them.  A  curious  bas- 
relief  recently  published  shows  us  the  spectacle 
of  this  sacred  repast  (Fig.  38).  Before  two 
persons  stretched  upon  a  couch  covered  with 
pillows  is  placed  a  tripod  bearing  four  tiny 
loaves  of  bread,  each  marked  with  a  cross. 
Around  them  are  grouped  the  initiates  of  the 
different  orders,  and  one  of  them,  the  Persian, 
presents  to  the  two  a  drinking-horn;  whilst  a 
second  vessel  is  held  in  the  hands  of  one  of 
the  Participants.  These  love  feasts  are  evi- 
i  iently  the  ritual  commemoration  of  the  ban- 
ihuet  which  Mithra  celebrated  with  the  Sun 
pefore  his  ascension.*  From  this  mystical 
panquet,  and  especially  from  the  imbibing  of 
the  sacred  wine,  supernatural  effects  were  ^- 
^ected.  The  intoxicating  liquor  gave  not  only 
vigor  of  body  and  material  prosperity,  but  wis- 
dom of  mind;  it  communicated  to  the  neo- 
~^pHyte~the  power  to  combat  the  malignant 
spirits,  and  what  is  more,  conferred  upon  him 
as  upon  his  god  a  glorious  immortality. 

The  sacramental  collation  was  accompanied, 
or  rather  preceded,  by  other  rites  of  a  differ- 
ent character.  These  were  genuine  trials  im- 
posed upon  the  candidate.  To  receive  the 
sacred  ablutions  and  the  consecrated  food,  the 
Participant  was  obliged  to  prepare  for  them  by 
prolonged  abstinence  and  numerous  austeri- 
ties; he  played  the  role  of  sufferer  in  certain 
dramatic  expiations  of  strange  character  and 

*See  above,  p.  138 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY  l6l 

of  which  we  know  neither  the  number  nor 
the  succession.  If  we  can  believe  a  Christian 
writer  of  the  fourth  century,*  the  eyes  of  the 
neophyte  were  bandaged,  his  hands  were  bound 
with  the  entrails  of  chickens,  and  he  was  com- 
pelled to  leap  over  a  ditch  filled  with  water; 
finally,  a  liberator  approached  with  a  sword 
and  sundered  his  loathsome  bonds.  Some- 
times, the  terrified  mystic  took  part,  if  not  as 
an  actor,  at  least  as  a  spectator,  in  a  simulated 
murder,  which  In  Its  origin  was  undoubtedly 
real.  In  late  periods,  the  officiants  were  con- 
tented with  producing  a  sword  dipped  in  the 
blood  of  a  man  who  had  met  a  violent  death. 
The  cruelty  of  these  ceremonies,  which  among 
the  warlike  tribes  of  the  Taurus  must  have 
been  downright  savage  orgies,  was  softened 
by  contact  with  western  civilization.  In  any 
event,  they  had  become  more  fear-inspiring 
than  fearful,  and  it  was  the  moral  courage  of 
the  initiate  that  was  tried  rather  than  his  phys- 
ical endurance.  The  Idea  which  was  sought 
to  be  attained  was  the  stoic  "apathy,"  the 
absence  of  every  sensitive  emotion.  The 
atrocious  tortures,  the  Impossible  macerations, 
to  which  some  too  credulous  or  Inventive 
authors  have  condemned  the  adepts  of  the 
Mysteries,  must  be  relegated  to  the  realm  of 
fable,  as  must  likewise  the  pretended  human 
sacrifices  which  were  said  to  have  been  per- 
petrated in  the  shades  of  the  sacred  crypts. 

*See  above,  p.  153,  footnote. 


l62  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

Nevertheless,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that 
Mithraism  exhibited  nothing  more  than  the 
benignant  phantasmagoria  of  a  species  of  an- 
cient freemasonry.  There  had  subsisted  in 
its  liturgic  drama  vestiges  of  its  original  bar- 
barism, of  the  time  when  in  the  forests,  in  the 
depths  of  some  dark  cave,  corybantes,  envel- 
oped in  the  skins  of  beasts,  sprinkled  the  altars 
with  their  blood.  In  the  Roman  towns,  the 
secluded  caverns  of  the  mountains  were  re- 
placed by  subterranean  vaults  {spelcva)  of  far 
less  imposing  aspect  (Fig.  3q).  But  even  in 
these  artificial  grottos  the  scenes  of  initiation 
were  calculated  to  produce  on  the  neophyte 
a  profound  impression.  When,  after  having 
traversed  the  approaches  of  the  temple,  he 
descended  the  stairs  of  the  crypt,  he  perceived 
before  him  in  the  brilliantly  decorated  and 
illuminated  sanctuary  the  venerated  image  of 
the  tauroctonous  Mithra  erected  in  the  apse, 
then  the  monstrous  statues  of  the  leonto- 
cephalous  Kronos,  laden  with  attributes  and 
mystic  symbols,  the  meaning  of  which  was 
still  unknown  to  him.  At  the  two  sides,  partly 
in  the  shadow,  the  assistants,  kneeling  on 
stone  benches,  were  seen  praying.  Lamps 
ranged  about  the  choir  threw  their  bright 
rays  on  the  images  of  the  gods  and  the  cele- 
brants, who,  robed  in  strange  costumes,  re- 
ceived the  new  convert.  Fitful  flashes  of  light 
skillfully  manipulated  impressed  his  eyes  and 
his  mind.     The  sacred  emotion  with  which  he 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY 


163 


•g   >.  a^  -c  ^  ^ 

"^-^    "71    "'"^  rt     3  O 

^      U      Q  '^      U  . 

^  c  ^  S  *^  - 

-"  o  '^  a>  03  ^ 


CD 


CD 


-^    ^ 


t/3 


OJ 


O    0)    1^    0)    >->•-' 


<4-i  t-.  -jui 


(D 

;,>    y    f^ 
1^    rt    rt 


^-^   <U    i^    o  •— 

to 


a,  oj 


<^      XT. 


<U 


S-Q  -t; 


B5 


^  i^'  g.^  ::  -^  ^ 

S  p  oj  ^^^1 
I  ^  o  ■;:  ^  ^  I 


nd 


<4-i 

O     U3 
(-1    -M 

51 


c/l    o 


ri 


03  ^ 


Ph  O 


y^  -^  ^  Ci  ^  o 

<L>  ~ — 

t/3  W3  ,_ 

p    C  O  cd 

5  oi  ^  d 


^   bo 

si; 

H  Pi 


a>  o 


164  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

was  seized  lent  to  images  which  were  really 
puerile  a  most  formidable  appearance;  the 
vain  allurements  with  which  he  was  con- 
fronted appeared  to  him  serious  dangers  over 
which  his  courage  triumphed.  The  fermented 
beverage  which  he  imbibed  excited  his  senses 
and  disturbed  his  reason  to  the  utmost  pitch; 
he  murmured  his  mystic  formulas,  and  they 
evoked  before  his  distracted  imagination  di- 
vine apparitions.  In  his  ecstasy,  he  believed 
himself  transported  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
world,  and  having  issued  from  his  trance  he 
repeated,  as  did  the  mystic  of  Apuleius:*  "I 
have  transcended  the  boundaries  of  death,  I 
have  trodden  the  threshold  of  Proserpine,  and 
having  traversed  all  the  elements  I  am  re- 
turned to  the  earth.  In  the  middle  of  the 
night  I  have  seen  the  Sun  scintillating  with  a 
pure  light;  I  have  approached  the  gods  below 
and  the  gods  above,  and  have  worshipped 
them  face  to  face." 

The  tradition  of  all  this  occult  ceremonial 
'was  scrupulously  observed  by  a  priesthoodin- 


structedjn  the  divine  science  and  distinct  from 
all  classes  of  initiates.     Its  first  founders  were 


certainly  the  Oriental  Magi,  but  we  are  almost 
entirely  ignorant  of  the  manner  in  which  its 
ranks  were  later  recruited  and  organized.  Was 
it  hereditary,  named  for  life,  or  chosen  for  a 
fixed  term?     In  the  latter  event,  who  had  the 

*Apuleius,    Met  am.    XI,    23,    a  propos   of   the   mystics   of 
I  sis. 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY  165 

right  of  choosing  and  what  conditions  did  the 
candidates  have  to  fulfil  ?  None  of  these  points 
is  sufficiently  elucidated.  We  can  only  state 
that  the  priest,  who  bore  indifferently,  as  it 
seems,  the  title  of  sacerdos  or  that  of  antistcs, 
was  often,  but  not  always,  a  member  of  the 
Fathers.  We  find  one  vicar,  and  sometimes 
several,  in  each  temple.  There  is  every 
ground  for  believing  that  a  certain  hierarchy 
existed  in  this  "sacerdotal  order."  Tertullian 
tells  us  that  the  chief  pontiff  {s2i]ji}uus  ponti- 
fexY  could  marry  but  once;  he  doubtless  des- 
ignated by  this  Roman  name  the  "Father  of 
the  Fathers,"  who  appears  to  have  exercised 
general  jurisdiction  over  all  the  initiates  resid- 
ing in  the  city.t  This  is  the  only  indication 
we  possess  regarding  an  organization  which 
was  perhaps  as  solidly  constituted  as  that  of 
the  Magi  in  the  Sassanian  kingdom,  or  that  of 
the  Manichccans  of  the  Roman  empire.  The 
same  apologist  adds  that  the  sectarians  of  the 
Persian  god  also  had,  like  the  Christians,  their 
"virgins  and  their  continents."  The  existence 
of  this  kind  of  Mithraic  monachism  appears  to 
be  all  the  more  remarkable  as  the  merit  at- 
tached to  celibacy  is  antagonistic  to  the  spirit 
of  Zoroastrianism. 

The  role  of  the  clergy  was  certainly  more 
extensive  than  in  the  ancient  Greek  and  Ro- 

*Tertull.,  De  praescr.  haeret.,  XL. 

fCf.  supra,  p.  155.     I  adopt  here  the  suggestion  of  M.  Wis- 
sova,  Religion  der  Romer,  1902,  p.  309. 


l66  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

man  religions.  The  priest  was  the  interme- 
diary between  God  and  man.  His  functions 
evidently  included  the  administration  of  the 
sacraments  and  the  celebration  of  the  serv- 
ices. The  inscriptions  tell  us  that  in  addition 
he  presided  at  the  formal  dedications,  or  at 
least  represented  the  faithful  one  on  such  an 
occasion  along  with  the  Fathers;  but  this  was 
the  least  portion  only  of  the  duties  he  had  to 
perform;  the  religious  service  which  fell  to 
his  lot  appears  to  have  been  very  exacting. 
He  doubtless  was  compelled  to  see  that  a  per- 
petual fire  burned  upon  the  altars.  Three 
jtimes  a  day,  at  dawn,  at  noom_ancLat^Lusk,  he 
addressed  _ajprayer  to  the  Sun,  turning  in  the 
morning  toward  the  East,  at  noon  toward  the 
South,  at  evening  toward  the  West.  The  daily 
liturgy  frequently  embraced  special  sacrifices. 
The  celebrant,  garbed  in  sacerdotal  robes 
resembling  those  of  the  Magi,  sacrificed  to  the 
higher  and  lower  gods  divers  victims,  the  blood 
of  which  was  collected  in  a  trench;  or  offered 
them  libations,  holding  in  his  hands  the  bundle 
of  sacred  twigs  which  we  know  from  the 
Avesta.  Long  psalmodies  and  chants  accom- 
panied with  music  were  interspersed  among 
the  ritual  acts.  A  solemn  moment  in  the 
service, — one  very  probably  marked  by  the 
sounding  of  a  bell, — was  that  in  which  the 
image  of  the  tauroctonous  Mithra,  hitherto 
kept  veiled,  was  uncovered  before  the  eyes  of 
the  initiates.     In  some  temples,  the  sculptured 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY  167 

slab,  like  our  tabernacles,  revolved  on  a  pivot, 
and  alternately  concealed  and  exposed  the 
figures  that  adorned  its  two  faces. 

Each  day  in  the  week,  the  Planet  to  which  the 
day  was  sacred  was  invoked  in  a  fixed  spot  in 
the  crypt;  and  Sunday,  over  which  the  Sun 
presided,  was  especially  holy.  Further,  the 
liturgic  calendar  solemnized  certain  dates  by 
festivals  concerning  which  we  are  unfortu- 
nately very  poorly  informed.  Possibly  the 
sixteenth  or  middle  day  of  the  month  con- 
tinued (as  in  Persia)  to  have  Mithra  for  its 
patron.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  never  a 
word  in  the  Occident  concerning  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  Mithrakana,  which  were  so  popular 
In  Asia.*  They  were  doubtless  merged  in  the 
celebration  of  the  25th  of  December,  for  a 
3^ery  wide-spread  custom  required  thatjthenew 
birth  of  the  Sun  {N^aialts  invicti),  which  began 
to  wax  great  again  on  the  termination  of  the 
winter  solstice,  should  be  celebrated  by  sacred 
.festivals^  We  have  good  reasons  for  believing 
that  the  equinoxes  were  also  days  of  rejoicing, 
the  return  of  the  deified  seasons  being  inau- 
gurated by  some  religious  salutation.  The 
initiations  took  place  preferably  at  the  begin- 
ning of  spring,  in  March  or  in  April,  at  the 
Paschal  period,  when  Christians  likewise  ad- 
mitted their  catechumens  to  the  rites  of  bap- 
tism. But  concerning  all  these  solemnities, 
as  generally  with  everything  connected  with 

*See  above,  p.  9. 


l68  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

the  heortology*  of  the  Mysteries,  our  Ignorance 
is  almost  absolute. 

The  Mithraic  communities  were  not  only 
brotherhoods  united  by  spiritual  bonds;  they 
•V..^  ^were  also  associations  possessing  juridic  exist- 
•ence  and  enjoying  the  right  of  holding  prop- 
erty. For  the  management  of  their  affairs 
and  the  care  of  their  temporal  interests,  they 
elected  officers,  who  must  not  be  confounded 
either  with  the  initiates  or  the  priests.  The 
titles  borne  in  the  descriptions  by  the  mem- 
bers of  these  boards  of  trustees  prove  to  us 
that  the  organization  of  the  colleges  of  the 
worshippers  of  MIthra  did  not  differ  from  that 
of  the  other  religious  sodalicia,  which  was 
based  upon  the  constitutions  of  the  munici- 
palities or  towns.  These  corporations  pub- 
lished an  official  list  of  their  members,  an 
albiiiu  sacratoriim,  in  which  the  latter  were 
ranked  according  to  the  importance  of  their 
office.  They  had  at  their  head  a  council  of 
decurions,  a  directing  committee  named  most 
likely  in  a  general  assembly,  a  sort  of  minia- 
ture senate,  of  which  the  first  ten  [dcccui  pritiii) 
possessed,  as  in  the  cities,  special  privileges. 
They  had  their  masters  [niagistri)  or  presi- 
dents, elected  annually,  their  curators  {cura- 
fores),  upon  whom  fell  the  task  of  manag- 
ing the  finances,  their  attorneys  {dcfcnsorcs), 
charged   with    presenting  their   cause   before 

*The  science   of  festivals.     From   iopT-q,  festival,  holiday. 
—  Tr. 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY  l6g 

the  courts  or  public  bureaus;  and  finally,  their 
patrons  [pa/nvii),  persons  of  consequence,  from 
whom  they  expected  not  only  efficient  protec- 
tion but  also  pecuniary  aid  in  replenishing 
their  budget. 

As  the  state  granted  them  no  subsidies,  their 
well-being  depended  exclusively  on  private 
generosity.  X'oluntary  contributions,  the  reg- 
ular revenues  of  the  college,  scarcely  covered 
the  expenses  of  worship,  and  the  least  extraor- 
dinary expenditure  was  a  heavy  burden  for 
the  common  purse.  These  associations  of 
unmoneyed  people  could  not,  with  their  slen- 
der resources,  construct  sumptuous  temples; 
ordinarily  they  acquired  from  some  favorably 
disposed  land-holder  a  piece  of  ground,  on 
which  they  erected,  or  rather  dug,  their  chapel, 
some  other  benefactor  defraying  the  cost  of 
the  construction.  Or,  some  wealthy  burgher 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  mystics  a  cellar, 
where  they  installed  themselves  as  best  they 
could.  If  the  original  donor  had  not  the 
means  to  pay  for  the  interior  decoration  of 
the  crypt  and  the  modelling  of  the  sacred 
images,  other  Brothers  supplied  the  necessary 
sum,  and  a  honorific  inscription  perpetuated 
the  memory  of  their  munificence.  Three 
votive  inscriptions  found  in  Rome  enable  us 
to  witness  the  founding  of  one  of  these  Mith- 
raic  congregations.*     A  freedman  and  a  free- 

*-Corpus  inscriptionum  latinariim,  Vol.  VI.,  Nos.  556,  717, 
734=30822  (T:  et  RL,  Vol.  II,  p.  loi,  nos47_48>^i«). 


170  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

man  contributed  a  marble  altar,  two  other 
initiates  consecrated  a  second  one,  and  a  slave 
likewise  made  his  modest  offering.  The 
generous  protectors  obtained  in  return  for 
their  liberality  the  highest  dignities  in  the 
little  church.  Through  their  efforts  it  was 
gradually  furnished,  and  in  the  end  could 
allow  itself  certain  luxuries.  Marble  suc- 
ceeded common  stone,  sculpture  replaced 
plaster,  and  mosaic  was  substituted  for  paint- 
ing. Finally,  when  the  first  temple  fell  into 
decay,  the  enriched  community  frequently  re- 
built it  with  new  splendor. 

The  number  of  the  gifts  mentioned  in  the 
epigraphic  texts  bears  witness  to  the  attach- 
ment of  the  faithful  to  the  brotherhoods  into 
which  they  had  been  admitted.  It  was  owing 
to  the  constant  devotion  of  the  thousands  of 
zealous  disciples  that  these  societies,  the  or- 
ganic cells  of  the  great  religious  body,  could 
live  and  flourish.  The  order  was  divided  Into 
a  multitude  of  little  circles,  strongly  knit  to- 
gether and  practising  the  same  rites  in  the 
same  sanctuaries.  The  size  of  the  temples  in 
which  they  worshipped  is  proof  that  the  num- 
ber of  members  was  always  very  limited. 
Even  supposing  that  the  Participants  only 
were  allowed  to  enter  the  subterranean  crypt 
and  that  the  initiates  of  inferior  rank  were 
admitted  only  to  the  vestibule  {proiiaos),  it  is 
impossible  that  these  societies  should  have 
counted   more    than   one    hundred    members. 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY  I/I 

When  the  number  increased  beyond  measure, 
a  new  chapel  was  constructed  and  the  group 
separated.  In  these  compact  churches,  where 
every  one  knew  and  aided  every  one  else,  pre- 
vailed the  intimacy  of  a  large  family.  The 
clear-cut  distinctions  of  an  aristocratic  society 
were  here  effaced;  the  adoption  of  the  same 
faith  had  made  the  slave  the  equal,  and  some- 
times the  superior,  of  the  decurion  and  the 
clarissiiuiis.  All  bowed  to  the  same  rules,  all 
were  equally  honored  guests  at  the  same  festi- 
vals, and  after  their  death  they  all  doubtless 
reposed  in  one  common  sepulcher.  Although 
no  Mithraic  cemetery  has  been  discovered  up 
to  the  present  day,  the  special  belief  of  the 
sect  regarding  the  future  life  and  its  very  defi- 
nite rites  render  it  quite  probable  that  like  the 
majority  of  the  Roman  sodalicia  it  formed  not 
only  religious  colleges  but  also  funerary  asso- 
ciations. It  certainly  practised  inhumation, 
and  the  liveliest  and  most  ardent  desire  of  its 
adepts  must  have  been  that  of  obtaining  an 
interment  that  was  at  once  honorable  and  re- 
ligious, a  "mansion  eternal,"  where  they  could 
await  in  peace  the  day  of  the  Resurrection. 
If  the  name  of  brothers  which  the  initiates 
gave  themselves  was  not  an  empty  term,  they 
were  bound  to  render  to  one  another  at  least 
this  last  duty. 
r^  The  very  imperfect  image  that  we  can  frame  jy^^lVJ 
1  of  the  interior  life  of  the  Mithraic  conventicles  .  ^1 
aids  us  nevertheless  in  fathoming  the  reasons 


1/2  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

J  of_theIr  rapid    multiplication.      The   humble 
plebeians  who  first  entered  its  vaults  in  great 


/: 


I  numbers  found  in  the  fraternity  of  these  con- 

jgregations    succor    and    solace.      In    joining 

J  them,   they   passed   from   their   isolation    and 

!  abandonment  to  become  a  part  of  a  powerful 

organization  with  a  fully  developed  hierarch}^ 

and  having  ramifications   that   spread  like   a 

j  dense  net  over  the  entire  empire.      Besides, 

Ithe  titles  which   were   conferred    upon    them 

'satisfied  the  natural  desire  that  dwells  in  every 

man  of  playing  a  part    in   the  world    and   of 

enjoying  some  consideration  in  the  eyes  of  his 

Jellows. 

With  these  purely  secular  reasons  were  asso- 
ciated the  more  powerful  motives  of  faith. 
The  members  of  these  little  societies  imagined 
themselves  in  the  privileged  possession  of  a 
body  of  ancient  wisdom  derived  from  the  far 
Orient.  The  secrecy  with  which  these  un- 
fathomable arcana  were  surrounded  increased 
the  veneration  that  they  inspired:  Oi//>ic  igno- 
tiiiii  pro  ))iagnifico  est.  The  gradual  initiations 
kept  alive  in  the  heart  of  the  neophyte  the 
hopes  of  truth  still  more  sublime,  and  the 
strange  rites  which  accompanied  them  left  in 
his  ingenuous  soul  an  ineffaceable  impression. 
The  converts  believed  they  found,  and,  the 
suggestion  being  transformed  into  reality, 
actually  did  find,  in  the  mystic  ceremonies  a 
stimulant  and  a  consolation.  They  l-jpllc-ypd 
themselves  purified  of  their  guilt  by  the  ritual 


THE    MITHRAIC    LITURGY  I73 

f  ablutions,  and  this  baptism  lightened  their  con- 
i^cieiiCe  of  the  welkin  uf  itrdr  heavy  responsi- 
:  bility.      They  came   torth    strengthened   from 
j  these  sacred    banquets,  which   contained   the 
promise  of  a  better  life,  where  the  sufferings 
\  of  this  world  would   find  their  full  compensa- 
\  tion.     The  astonishing  spread  of  Mithraism  is 
\  due  in  large  measure  to  these  stupendous  illu- 
;  sions,  which  would  appear  ludicrous  were  they 
\  not  so  profoundly  and  thoroughly  human. 
^    Nevertheless,   in    the   competition    between 
the   rival    churches    that   disputed   under  the 
Caesars  the  empire  of  human  souls,  one  cause 
of  inferiority  rendered  the  struggle  unequal 
for  the   Persian  sect.     Whilst  the  majority  of 
the  Oriental  cults  accorded  to  women  a  con- 
siderable  role   in    their  churches,   and  some- 
^tim^es  even   a  preponderating  one,  finding  in 
"them  ardent  supporters  of  the   faith,  Mithra 
forbade   their  participation   in    his    Mysteries  ^ 
and   so  ..deprived   himsel£-o£_t]ie   iucalculabk-^ 
assistance  of  these  propagandisis..    The  rude 
discipline  of  the  order  did  not  permit  them  to 
take  the  degrees  in  the  sacred  cohorts,  and, 
as  among  the  Mazdeans  of  the  Orient,  they 
occupied  only  a  secondary  place  in  the  society 
of  the  faithful.     Among  the  hundreds  of  in- 
scriptions that  have  come  down  to  us,  not  one 
mentions  either  a  priestess,  a  woman  initiate, 
or  even   a  donatress.     But    a   religion   which 
aspired  to  become  universal  could  not  deny  a 
knowledge  of  divine  things  to  one  half  of  the 


.W 


1/4  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

human  race,  and  in  order  to  afford  some  op- 
portunity for  feminine  devotion  it  contracted 
at  Rome  an  alliance  which  certainly  contrib- 
uted to  its  success.  The  history  of  Mithraism 
in  the  Occident  would  not  be  intelligible  if  we 
neglected  to  consider  its  policy  toward  the 
rest  of  paganism. 


MITHRAISM   AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF 
THE  EMPIRE 

THE    acts    of   the   Oriental    martyrs   bear 
eloquent    testimony  to   the   intolerance 
of   the   national  clergy  of  the   Persia  of  the 
Sassanids;    and  the  Magi  of  the  ancient  em- 
pire, if  they  were  not  persecutors,  at  least  con- 
stituted an  exclusive  caste,  and  possibly  even 
a   privileged    race.      The    priests    of    Mithra 
afford  no  evidence  of  having  assumed  a  like 
attitude.      Like  the  Judaism    of   Alexandria, 
Mazdaism  had  been  softened  in  Asia  Minor 
by  the  Hellenic  civilization.    Transported  into 
a  strange  world,  it  was  compelled  to  accom- 
modate itself  to  the  usages  and  ideas  there 
prevailing;    and  the  favor  with  which  it  was 
received    encouraged   it    to    persevere    in    its 
policy  of  conciliation.     The  Iranian  gods  who 
accompanied     Mithra    in    his    peregrinations 
were  worshipped  in  the  Occident  under  Greek 
and    Latin    names;    the    Avestan  yazatas   as- 
sumed there  the  guise  of  the  immortals  en- 
throned  on  Olympus,  and  these  facts  are  in 
themselves  sufficient  to  prove  that  far^  from 
exhibiting  hostility  toward  the  ancient  Graeco- 
RBmanTlbenefs,  the  Asiatic  religion  sought  to 
accommodate  itself  to  them,  in  appearance  at 
least.     A  pious  mystic  could,  without  renoun- 


1/6 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


cing  his  faith,  dedicate  a  votive  inscription  to 
the  Capitoline  triad,— Jupiter,  Juno,  and  Mi- 
nerva; he  merely  invested  these  divine  names 


Fig.  40. 

TAUROCTONOUS    MITHRA 

In  the  possession  of  Mr.  S.  H.  Janes,  Janes  Build- 
ings, Toronto,  Canada.  "With  the  usual  accessories.  In 
the  upper  left-hand  corner  a  bust  of  the  vSun,  and  in 
the  upper  right-hand  corner  a  bust  of  the  Moon.  The 
left  hand  of  the  god,  which  has  been  broken  off,  appar- 
ently grasps  a  horn  and  not  the  nostrils  of  the  bull. 
In  all  probability  partly  restored,  it  being  scarcely 
possible  that  the  dadophori  could  both  have  held 
upright  torches.     {T.  ct  31.,  Fig.  418,  p.  4S3.) 

with  a  different  meaning  from  their  ordinary 
acceptation.  If  the  injunction  to  refrain  from 
participating  in  other  Mysteries,  which  is  said 
tohave  been  imposed  upon  Mithraic  initiates, 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     \']'J 

was  ever  obeyed  it  was  not  long  able  to  with- 
stand^ tHe  syncretic  tendencies  of  imperial 
paganism.  For  in  the  fourth  century  the 
"Fathers  of  the  Fathers"  were  found  perform- 
ing the  highest  offices  of  the  priesthood,  in 
temples  of  all  sorts. 

Everywhere  the  sect  knew  how  to  adapt  it- 
self with  consummate  skill  to  the  environment 
in  which  it  lived.  In  the  valley  of  the  Danube 
It  exercised  on  the  indigenous  cult  an  influence 
that  presupposes  a  prolonged  contact  between 
them.  In  the  region  of  the  Rhine,  the  Celtic 
divinities  were  worshipped  in  the  crypts  of 
the  Persian  god,  or  at  least  alongside  of  them. 
Thus,  the  Mazdean  theology,  according  to  the 
country  in  which  it  flourished,  was  colored 
with  variable  tints,  the  precise  gradations  of 
which  it  is  now  impossible  for  us  to  follow. 
But  these  dogmatic  shadings  merely  diversi- 
fied the  subordinate  details  of  the  religion, 
and  never  imperilled  its  fundamental  unity. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  that  these 
deviations  of  a  flexible  doctrine  provoked 
heresies.  The  concessions  which  it  made 
were  matters  of  pure  form.  In  reality,  Mith- 
raism  having  arrived  in  the  Occident  in  its  full 
maturity,  and  even  showing  signs  of  decrepi- 
tude, no  longer  assimilated  the  elements  that 
it  borrowed  from  the  surrounding  life.  The 
only  inriuences  that  profoundly  modified  its 
"clrararter  were  those  to  which  it  was  subjected 
in  its  youth  amidst  the  populations  of  Asia. 


1 78  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

The  close  relation  in  which  Mithra  stood 
to  certain  gods  of  this  country  is  explained  not 
only  by  the  natural  affinity  which  united  all 
Oriental  immigrants  in  opposition  to  the 
paganism  of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  ancient 
religious  hostility  of  the  Egyptians  and  Per- 
sians persisted  even  in  Rome  under  the  em- 
"perors,  and  the  Iranian  Mysteries  appear 
to  have  been  separated  from  those  of  Isis  by 
secret  rivalry  if  not  by  open  opposition.  On 
tFi^'bther  hand,  they  associated  readily  with 
the  Syrian  cults  that  had  emigrated  with  them 
from  Asia  and  Europe.  Their  doctrines,  thor- 
oughly imbued  with  Chaldsean  theories,  must 
have  presented  a  striking  resemblance  to  that 
of  the  Semitic  religions.  Jupiter  Dolichenus, 
who  was  w^orshipped  simultaneously  with 
Mithra  in  Commagene,  the  land  of  his  origin, 
and  who  like  the  latter  remained  a  preemi- 
nently military  divinity,  Is  found  by  his  side  In 
all  the  countries  of  the  Occident.  At  Carnun- 
tum  in  Pannonia,  a  mithra:um  and  a  doliche- 
nuiJi^  adjoined  each  other.  Baal,  the  lord  of 
the  heavens,  was  readily  identified  with  Or- 
mazd,  who  had  become  Jupiter-Ca:lus,  and 
Mithra  was  easily  likened  to  the  solar  god  of 
the  Syrians.  Even  the  rites  of  the  two  litur- 
gies appear  to  have  offered  some  resemblances. 

As  in  Commagene,  so  also  in  Phrygia,  Maz- 
dalsm  had  sought  a  common  ground  of  under- 
standing with  the  religion  of  the  country.     In 

*A  temple  of  Jupiter  Dolichenus. —  Fr. 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     1 79 

the  union  of  Mithra  and  Anahita  the  counter- 
part was  found  of  the  intimacy  between  the 
great  indigenous  divinities  Attis  and  Cybele, 
and  this  harmony  between  the  two  sacred 
couples  persisted  in  Italy.  The  most  ancient 
mithra?,um  known  to  us  was  contiguous  to  the 
nietroon^  of  Ostia,  and  we  have  every  reason 
to  believe  that  the  worship  of  the  Iranian  god 
and  that  of  the  Phrygian  goddess  were  con- 
ducted in  intimate  communion  with  each  other 
throughout  the  entire  extent  of  the  empire. 
Despite  the  profound  differences  of  their  char- 
acter, political  reasons  drew  them  together. 
In  conciliating  the  priests  of  the  Mater  Magna, 
the  sectaries  of  Mithra  obtained  the  support 
of  a  powerful  and  officially  recognized  clergy, 
and  so  shared  in  some  measure  in  the  protec- 
tion afforded  it  by  the  State.  Further,  since 
men  only  were  permitted  to  take  part  In  the 
secret  ceremonies  of  the  Persian  liturgy,  other 
Mysteries  to  which  women  were  admitted  must 
have  formed  some  species  of  alliance  with  the 
former,  to  make  them  complete.  The  Great 
"TVTother  succeeded  thus  to  the  place  of  Ana- 
hita; she  had  her  Matrcs  or  "Mothers,"  as 
Mithra  had  his  "Fathers";  and  her  initiates 
were  known  among  one  another  as  "Sisters," 
just  as  the  votaries  of  her  associate  called 
one  another  "Brothers." 

This  alliance,  fruitful  generally  in  its  results, 
was  especially  profitable  to  the  ancient  cult  of 

*  A  temple  of  Cybele.  —  7?-. 


\h 


l80  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

Pessinus,  now  naturalized  at  Rome.     The  loud 
pomp  of  its  festivals  was  a  poor  mask  of  the 
vacuity  of  its  doctrines,  which  no  longer  satis- 
fied the  aspirations  of  its  devotees.     Its  gross 
theology  was  elevated  by  the  adoption  of  cer- 
tain Mazdean  beliefs.     There  can  be  scarcely 
any  doubt  that  the  practice  of  the  taurobo- 
lium,  with  the  ideas  of  purification  and  immor- 
tality appertaining  to  it,  had  passed  under  the 
Antonines  from  the  temples  of  Anahita  into 
those  of  the  Mater  Magna.     The  barbarous 
custom    of   allowing   the    blood    ot    a   vicTlm 
slaughtered  on  a  latticed  platform  to  fall  down 
iip'Trth-^^-m-y^ti^  b'ing  in  p  pit  h^lJ^j^^Ty^p*''^^^- 
jiblj;  practised  jn  Asia  froiTitime  immemorial. 
According   to    a   wide-spreacr~~notion    among 
primitive  peoples,  the  blood  is  the  vehicle  of 
the  vital  energy,  and  the  person  who  poured 
it  upon   his  body  and   moistened   his  tongue 
with  it,  believed  that  he  was  thereby  endowed 
with  the  courage  and  strength  of  the  slaugh- 
tered animal.     This   sacred   bath   appears  to 
have  been   administered   in  Cappadocia  in  a 
great  number  of  sanctuaries,  and  especially  in 
those  of    Ma,   the  great   indigenous   divinity, 
and  in  those  of  Anahita.     These  goddesses,  to 
whom    the   bull   was   consecrated,    had    been 
generally   likened    by   the    Greeks    to    their 
Artemis  Tauropolos,  and  the   ritualistic  bap- 
tism practised  in  their  cult  received  the  name 
of  tanropoliuiu  [ravpo-nokiov),  which  was  trans- 
formed by  the  popular  etymology  into  fauro- 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     l8l 

bolinm  {Tavpo/36\iov).  But  under  the  influence _ 
of  the  Mazdean  beUefs  regarding  the  future 
life,  a  more  profound  significance  was  attrib- 
"uted  to  this  baptism  of  blood.  In  taking  it  the 
devotees  no  longer  imagined  they  acquired 
the  strength  of  the  bull;  it  was  no  longer  a 
renewal  of  physical  strength  that  the  life-sus- 
taining liquid  was  now  thought  to  communi- 
cate, but  a  renovation,  temporary  or  even 
perpetual,  ot  the  human  soul.* 

vVhen,  under  the  empire,  the  taurobolium 
was  introduced  into  Ital}^  it  was  not  quite  cer- 
tain at  the  outset  what  Latin  name  should  be 
given  the  goddess  in  whose  honor  it  was  cele- 
brated. Some  saw  in  her  a  celestial  Venus; 
others  compared  her  to  Minerva,  because  of 
her  warlike  character.  But  the  priests  of 
Cybele  soon  introduced  the  ceremony  into 
their  liturgy, — evidently  with  the  complicity 
of  the  official  authorities,  for  nothing  in  the 
ritual  of  this  recognized  cult  could  be  modified 
without  the  authorization  of  the  quindecem- 
virs.  Even  the  emperors^re  known  to  have 
granted  privileges  to  those  who  performed 
this  hideous  sacrifice  for  their  salvation, 
though  their  motives  for  this  special  favor  are 
not  clearly  apparent.  The  efficacy  which  was 
^attributed  to  this  bloody  purification,  the  eter- 
nal new  birth   that  was  expected  of  it> j';esem- 

♦These  pages  summarize  the  conclusions  of  a  study  entitled 
Le  taurobole  et  Ic  culte  de  Be/lone,  published  in  the  Revue 
d" histoire  et  de  litteratiirc  reliirieuses. 


l82  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

bled  the  hopes  which  the  mystics  of  Mithra 
attached  to  the  immolation  of  the  mythical 
bull.*  The  similarity  of  these  doctrines  is 
quite  naturally  explained  by  the  identity  of 
their  origin.  The  taurobolium,  like  many  rites 
of  the  Oriental  cults,  is  a  survival  of  a  sav- 
age past  which  a  spiritualistic  theology  had 
adapted  to  moral  ends.  It  is  a  characteristic 
fact  that  the  first  immolations  of  this  kind 
that  we  know  to  have  been  performed  by  the 
clergy  of  the  Phrygian  goddess  took  place  at 
Ostia,  where  the  uictroon,  as  we  saw  above, 
adjoined  a  Mithraic  crypt. 

The  symbolism  of  the  Mysteries  certainly 
saw  in  the  Magna  Ala^er  the  nourishing  Earth 
which  the  Heavens  yearly  fecundated.  So 
the  Graico-Roman  divinities  which  they 
adopted  changed  in  character  on  entering 
their  dogmatic  system.  Sometimes,  these 
gods  were  identified  with  the  Mazdean  heroes, 
and  the  barbaric  legends  then  celebrated  the 
new  exploits  which  they  had  performed. 
Sometimes,  they  were  considered  the  agents 
that  produced  the  various  transformations  of 
the  universe.  Then,  in  the  center  of  this 
pantheon,  which  had  again  become  natural- 
istic, as  it  was  at  its  origin,  was  placed  the  Sun, 
for  he  was  the  supreme  lord  that  governed  the 
movements  of  all  the  planets  and  even  the 
revolutions  of  the  heavens  themselves, — the 
one  who  suffused  with  his  light  and  his  heat 

*See  above,  p.  146. 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     I83 


all  of  life  here  below.  This  conception,  as- 
tronomical in  its  origin,  predominated  more 
_an^d^  more   according  as   Mithra  entered  into 

more  intimate   relatj(>ns^with   Greek  thought 


Mithra  slaying  the  bull.     On   the  reverse   Cupid 
and  Psyche  (broken). 


Obverse:  The  sun-god  standing  upright  on  his 
quadriga  and  holding  in  his  hand  the  globe  on  which 
the  four  quarters  are  indicated.  Reverse:  Mithra 
leading  off  the  bull.  (Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art, 
New  York.) 

Fig-  41. 

MITHRAIC    GEMS. 

Green  jasper.     {T.  ct  M.,  p.  449.) 

and    became    a  more    faithful   subject  of  the 
Roman  state. 

The  worship  of  the  Sun,  the  outcome  of  a 
sentiment  of  recognition  for  its  daily  benefac- 


l84  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

tions,  augmented  by  the  observation  of  its  tre- 
mendous role  in  the  cosmic  system,  was  the 
^logical  upshot  of  paganism.  When  critical 
"thought  sought  to  explain  the  sacred  tradi- 
tions and  discovered  in  the  popular  gods  the 
forces  and  elements  of  nature,  it  was  obliged 
perforce  to  accord  a  predominant  place  to  the 
star  on  which  the  very  existence  of  our  globe 
depended,  "Before  religion  reached  the  point 
where  it  proclaimed  that  God  should  be  sought 
in  the  Absolute  and  the  Ideal,  that  is  to  say, 
outside  the  world,  one  cult  only  was  reason- 
able and  scientific  and  that  was  the  cult  of  the 
Sun."*  From  the  time  of  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle, Greek  philosophy  regarded  the  celestial 
bodies  as  animate  and  divine  creatures;  Stoi- 
cism furnished  new  arguments  in  favor  of  this 
opinion;  while  Neo-Pythagorism  and  Neo- 
Platonism  insisted  still  more  emphatically  on 
the  sacred  character  of  the  luminary  which  is 
the  ever-present  image  of  the  intelligible  God. 
These  beliefs,  approved  by  the  thinkers,  were 
widely  diffused  by  literature,  anci  particularly 
by  the  works  in  which  romantic  fiction  served 
to  envelop  genuinely  theological  teachings. 

If  heliolatry  was  in  accord  with  the  philo- 
sophical doctrines  of  the  day,  it  was  not  less  in 
conformity  with  its  political  tendencies.  We 
have  essayed  to  show  the  connection  which 
existed  between  the  worship  of  the  emperors 

*  Renan,    Lettre   h    Bert  helot   {Dialogues   et  fragments 

philosophiqucs'),  p.  i68. 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     185 

and  that  of  the  Solinvictiis.  When  the  Caesars 
of  the  third  century  pretended  to  be  gods  de- 
scended from  heaven  to  the  earth,  the  justifica- 
tion of  their  imaginary  claims  had  as  its  corol- 
lary the  establishment  of  a  public  worship  of  the 
divinity  from  whom  they  believed  themselves 
the  emanations.  Heliogabalus  had  claimed 
for  his  Baal  of  Emesa  the  supremacy  over  the 


Fig.  42. 

MriHRAIC    CAMEO    (reD    JASPER). 

Principal  face:  In  the  center,  the  tauroctonous 
Mithra,  with  the  dog,  the  scorpion,  the  two  torch- 
bearers,  etc.  Reverse:  A  lion  with  a  bee  in  his 
mouth;  above,  seven  stars  surrounded  by  magic 
Greek  inscriptions.     {T.  et  M.,  p.  450.) 

entire  pagan  pantheon.  The  eccentricities 
and  violences  of  this  unbalanced  man  resulted 
in  the  lamentable  wreck  of  his  undertaking; 
but  it  answered  to  the  needs  of  the  time  and 
was  soon  taken  up  again  with  better  success. 
Near  the  Flamlnian  Way,  to  the  east  of  the 
Field  of  Mars,  Aurelian  consecrated  a  colossal 
edifice  to  the  tutelary  god  that  had  granted 
him  victory  in  Syria.     The  religion  of  state 


1 86 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


that  he  constituted  must  not  be  confounded 
with  Mithraism.  Its  imposing  temple,  its 
ostentatious  ceremonies,  its  quadrennial 
games,  its  pontifical  clergy,  remind  us  of  the 
great  sanctuaries  of  the  Orient  and  not  of  the 
dim  caves  in  which  the   Mysteries  were  cele- 


Fig.  43- 
SOL    THE    SUN-GOD. 

Installed  by  Mithra  as  the  governor  of  the  world.     To  the 
right  the  globe  of  power.     {T.  ct  M.,  p.  202.) 

brated.  Nevertheless,  the  Sol  iiivichts,  whom 
the  emperor  had  intended  to  honor  with  a 
pomp  hitherto  unheard  of,  could  well  be 
claimed  as  their  own  by  the  followers  of 
Mithra. 

The  imperial  policy  gave  the  first  place  in 
the  official  religion  to  the  Sun,  of  which  the 
sovereign  was  the  emanation,  just  as  in   the 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     187 

Chaldecan    speculations    propagated    by    the 
Mithraists  the    royal    planet   held   sway  over 
the  other  stars.     On  both   sides,  the  growing 
tendency  was  to  see  in  the  brilliant  star  that 
illuminated  the  universe  the  only  God,  or  at 
least  the  sensible  image  of  the  only  God,  and 
"to  establish  in  the  heav.eng.  a,,  monotheism  in 
imitation  of  the  monarchy  that  ruled  on  earth. 
'  Macrobius  (400  A.D.),  in  his  Saturnalia,  has 
learnedly  set  forth   that  the  gods  were  ulti- 
mately reducible  to  a  single  Being  considered 
under  different  aspects,  and  that  the  multiple 
names  by  which  they  were  worshipped  were 
"the   equivalent  of   that  of    Helios   (the   Sun). 
The  theologian  Vettius  Agorius  Proctextatus 
who  defended  this  radical  syncrasy  was   not 
only  one  of  the  highest  dignitaries  of  the  em- 
pire, but  one  of  the  last  chiefs  of  the  Persian 
Mysteries. 
J>^      Mithraism,  at  least   in  the   fourth   century, 
^        had  therefore  as  its  end  and  aim  the  union  of 
all  gods  and  all  myths  in  a  vast  synthesis, — 
the  foundation  of  a  new  religion  in  harmony 
with  the  prevailing   philosophy  and   political 
constitution    of    the    empire.      This    religion 
would  have  been   as   far  removed   from    the 
ancient    Iranian    Mazdaism    as    from    Grseco- 
Roman  paganism,  which  accorded  the  sidereal 
powers  a   minimal   place  only.      It  had  in   a 
measure  traced  idolatry  back  to  its  origin,  and 
^dTscovered    in    the    myths    that   obscured    its 
comprehension     the     deificatjon    of     nature. 


l88  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

Breaking  with  the  Roman  principle  of  the  na- 
tionahty  of  worship,  it  would  have  established 
the  universal  domination  of  Mithra,  identified 
with  the  invincible  Sun.  Its  adherents  hoped, 
by  concentrating  all  their  devotion  upon  a 
single  object,  to  impart  new  cohesion  to  the 
disintegrated  beliefs.  Solar  pantheism  was 
the  last  refuge  of  conservative  spirits,  now 
menaced  b}^  a  revolutionary  propaganda  that 
aimed  at  the  annihilation  of  the  entire  ancient 
order  of  things. 

At  the  time  when  this  pagan  monotheism 
sought  to  establish  its  ascendency  in  Kome, 
the  struggle  between  tlie  IMithraic  Mysteries 


and  Christianity  had  long  begun.  The  propa- 
gation of  the  two  religions  had  been  almost 
contemporaneously  conducted,  and  their  diffu- 
sion had  taken  place  under  analogous  condi- 
tions. Both  from  the  Orient,  they  had  spread 
because  of  the  same  general  reasons,  viz.,  the 
/political  unity)  and  the  (^moral  anarchy/of  the 
empire.  Their  diffusion  had  been  accom- 
plished with  like  rapidity,  and  toward  the  close 
of  the  second  century  they  both  numbered 
adherents  in  the  most  distant  parts  of  the 
Roman  world.  The  sectaries  of  Mithra  might 
justly  lay  claim  to  the  hyperbolic  utterance  of 
TertuUian :  ''' Hcstcrni siiiiius  ct  vcstra  ouinia  i/u- 
plevimusr  If  we  consider  the  number  of  the 
monuments  that  the  Persian  religion  has  left 
us,  one  may  easily  ask  whether  in  the  epoch 
of  the  Severi  its  adepts  were  not  more  numer- 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     1 89 

ous  than  the  disciples  of  Christ.  Another 
4Joint  of  resemblance  between  the  two  antago- 
nistic creeds  was  that  at  the  outset  they  drew 
their  proselytes  chiefly  from  the  inferior 
classes  of  society;  their  propaganda  was  at 
"the  origin  essentially  popular;  unlike  the  phil- 
osophical sects,  they  addressed  their  endeav- 
ors less  to  cultivated  minds  than  to  the  masses, 
and  consequently  appealed  more  to  sentiment 
than  to  reason- 
But  by  the  side  of  these  resemblances  con- 
siderable differences  are  to  be  remarked  in 
the  methods  of  procedure  of  the  two  adver- 
saries.    The   initial  conquests  of  Christianity 

^  were  favored  by  the  Jewish  diaspora,  and  it 
first  spread  in  the  countries  inhabited  by 
Israelitic  colonies.  It  was  therefore  chiefly  in 
the  countries  washed  by  the  Mediterranean 
that  its  communities  developed.  They  did 
not  extend  their  field  of  action  outside  the 
cities,  and  their  multiplication  is  due  in  great 
part  to  missions  undertaken  with  the  express 
purpose  of  "instructing  the  nations."  The  ex- 
tension of  Mithraism,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
essentially  a  natural  product  of  social  and 
political  factors;  namely,  of  the  importation 
of  slaves,  the  transportation  of  troops,  and 
the  transfer  of  public  functionaries.  It  was  in 
government  circles  and  in  the  army  that  it 
counted  its  greatest  number  of  votaries, — that 
is,  in  circles  where  very  few  Christians  could 

\  be  found  because  of  their  aversion  to  official 


igO  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

paganism.  Outside  of  Italy,  it  spread  prin- 
cipally along-  the  frontiers  and  simultaneously 
gained  a  foothold  in  the  cities  and  in  the 
country.  It  found  its  strongest  points  of  sup- 
port in  the  Danubian  provinces  and  in  Ger- 
many, whereas  Christianity  made  most  rapid 
progress  in  Asia  Minor  and  Syria.  The 
spheres  of  the  two  religious  powers,  therefore, 
were  not  coincident,  and  they  could  accord- 
ingly long  grow  and  develop  without  coming 
directly  into  conflict.  It  was  in  the  valley  of 
the  Rhone,  in  Africa,  and  especially  in  the 
city  of  Rome,  where  the  two  competitors  were 
most  firmly  established,  that  the  rivalry,  dur- 
ing the  third  century,  became  particularly 
brisk  between  the  bands  of  Mithra's  worship- 
pers and  the  disciples  of  Christ. 
=»  The  struggle  between  the  two  rival  religions 
was  the  more  stubborn  as  their  characters 
wprp  1-Itp  T[r>nrf-  alike,  "l^he  adepts  of  both 
formed  secret  conventicles,  closely  united,  the 
members  of  which  gave  ihemsetves  the  name 
of  "Brothers."*  The  rites  which  they  prac- 
tised offered  numerous  analogies.  The  sec- 
taries of  the  Persian  god,  like  the  Christians, 
purified  themselves  by  baptism;  received,  by 
a  species  ot  conhrmation,  the  power  necessary 
to  combat  the  spirits  of  evil;    and   expected 

*I  may  remark  that  even  the  expression  "dearest  brothers" 
had  already  been  used  by  the  sectaries  of  Jupiter  Dolicheuus 
(CIL,  VI,  406^=30758:  frat7'es  carissimos  et  cojilegas  /ion 
[esiisswios])  and  probably  also  in  the  Mithraic  associations. 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     IQI 

from  a  Lord's  Supper  salvation  of  body  and 
soul.  Like  the  latter,  they  also  held  Sunday 
sacred,  and  celebrated  the  birth  of  the  Sun  on 
the  25th  of  December,  the  same  day  on  which 
Christmas  has  been  celebrated,  since  the 
fourth  century  at  least.  They  both  preached 
a  categorical  system  of  ethics,  regarded  ascet- 
icism as  meritorious,  and  counted  among 
their  principal  virtues  abstinence  and  conti- 
nence, renunciation  and  self-control.  Their 
conceptions  of  the  world  and  of  the  destiny  of 
man  were  similar.  They  both  admitted  the 
existence  of  a  Heaven  inhabited  by  beatified 
ones,  situate  in  the  upper  regions,  and  of  a 
Hell  peopled  by  demons,  situate  in  the  bowels 
of  the  earth.  They  both  placed  a  Flood  at 
the  beginning  of  history;  they  both  assigned 
as  the  source  of  their  traditions  a  primitive 
revelation;  they  both,  finally,  believed  in  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  in  a  last  judgment, 
and  in  a  resurrection  of  the  dead,  consequent 
upon  a  final  conflagration  of  the  universe. 

We  have  seen  that  the  theology  of  the  Mys- 
teries made  of  Mithra  a  "mediator"  equivalent 
to  the  Alexandrian  Logos.  Like  him,  Christ 
also  was  a  /xeo-ir-r^?,  an  intermediary  between 
his  celestial  father  and  men,  and  like  him  he 
also  was  one  of  a  trinity.  These  resemblances 
were  certainly  not  the  only  ones  that  pagan 
exegesis  established  between  the  two  religions, 
and  the  figure  of  the  tauroctonous  god  reluc- 
tantly  immolating   his  victim   that   he   might 


192 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


Fig.  4+- 


THE    PASSION    OF    THE    GOD. 


The  Dying  Alexander,  so  called.  Type  of  a  group 
of  sculptures  from  the  school  of  Pergamon,  dating 
from  the  second  century  before  Christ.  The  idealized 
portrait  of  Alexander  as  solar  god  has  been  discovered 
in  the  head  of  the  celebrated  Mithraic  statue  of  the 
Capitol  (see  Fig.  4,  page  21),  and  the  facial  expressions 
of  dolor,  pathos,  and  compassion  which  characterize 
this  work  are  shared  by  all  the  more  important  repre- 
sentations of  the  Mithraic  sacrifice.  The  present 
sculpture  has  been  partly  restored,  and  it  is  therefore 
impossible  to  determine  absolutely  whether  it  originally 
formed  part  of  an  Asiatic  group  of  the  tauroctonous 
Mithra.     {T.  ct  3f.,  Introduction,  p.  1S2.) 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     I93 

create  and  save  the  human  race,  was  certainly 
compared  to  the  picture  of  the  redeemer  sac- 
rificing his  own  person  for  the  salvation  of  the 
world. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  ecclesiastical  wri- 
ters, reviving  a  metaphor  of  the  prophet  Mal- 
achi,  contrasted  the  "Sun  of  justice"  with  the 
"invincible  Sun,"  and  consented  to  see  in  the 
dazzling  orb  which  illuminated  men  a  symbol 
of  Christ,  "the  light  of  the  world."  Should 
we  be  astonished  if  the  multitudes  of  devotees 
failed  always  to  observe  the  subtle  distinctions 
of  the  doctors,  and  if  in  obedience  to  a  pagan 
custom  they  rendered  to  the  radiant  star  of 
day  the  homage  which  orthodoxy  reserved  for 
God  ?  In  the  fifth  century,  not  only  heretics, 
but  even  faithful  followers,  were  still  wont  to 
bow  their  heads  toward  its  dazzling  disc  as  it 
rose  above  the  horizon,  and  to  murmur  the 
prayer,  "Have  mercy  upon  us." 

The  resemblances  between  the  two  hostile 
churches  were  so  striking  as  to  impress  even 
the  minds  of  antiquity.  From  the  third  cen- 
tury, the  Greek  philosophers  were  wont  to 
draw  parallels  between  the  Persian  Mysteries 
and  Christianity  which  were  evidently  entirely 
in  favor  of  the  former.  The  Apologists  also 
dwelt  on  the  analogies  between  the  two  relig- 
ions, and  explained  them  as  a  Satanic  travesty 
of  the  holiest  rites  of  their  religion.  If  the 
polemical  works  of  the  Mithraists  had  been 
preserved,  we  should  doubtless  have  heard  the 


194  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

same  accusation  hurled  back  upon  their  Chris- 
tian adversaries. 

We    cannot    presume    to    unravel    to-day  a 
question   which    divided   contemporaries  and 
which    shall    doubtless    forever  remain    insol- 
uble.     We   are    too    imperfectly    acquainted 
with  the  dogmas  and  liturgies  of  Roman  Maz- 
daism,  as  well   as  with    the  development   of 
primitive  Christianity,  to  say  definitely  what 
mutual    influences    were    operative    in    their 
simultaneous    evolution.      But    be    this    as    it 
j^  may,  resemblances  do  not  necessarily  suppose 
r^   an  imitation.     Many  correspondences  between 
the  Mithraic  doctrine  and  the  Catholic  faith 
are    explicable    by    their    common    Oriental 
jjorigin.     Nevertheless,  certain   ideas  and  cer- 
jMtain  ceremonies  must  necessarily  have  passed 
j  llifrom  the   one  cult   to   the   other;    but  in  the 
ilmajority  of  cases  we  rather  suspect  this  trans- 
\  iference  than  clearly  perceive  it. 

Apparently  the  attempt  was  made  to  dis- 
cern in  the  legend  of  the  Iranian  hero  the 
counterpart  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  the  dis- 
ciples of  the  Magi  probably  drew  a  direct  con- 
trast between  the  Mithraic  worship  of  the 
shepherds,  the  Mithraic  communion  and 
ascension,  and  those  of  the  Gospels.  The 
rock  of  generation,  which  had  given  birth  to 
the  genius  of  light,  was  even  compared  to  the 
immovable  rock,  emblem  of  Christ,  upon 
which  the  Church  was  founded;  and  the  crypt 
in  which  the  bull  had  perished  was  made   the 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     I95 

counterpart  of  that  in  which  Christ  is  said 
to  have  been  born  at  Bethlehem.*  But  this 
strained  paralleHsm  could  result  in  nothing 
but  a  caricature.  It  was  a  strong  source  of 
inferiority  for  Mazdaism  that  it  believed  in 
only  a  mythical  redeemer.  That  unfailing 
wellspring  of  religious  emotion  supplied  by 
the  teachings  and  the  passion  of  the  God 
sacrificed  on  the  cross,  never  flowed  for  the 
disciples  of  Mithra. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  orthodox  and  heret- 
ical liturgies  of  Christianity,  which  gradually 
sprang  up  during  the  first  centuries  of  our  era, 
could  find  abundant  inspiration  in  the  Mith- 
raic  Mysteries,  which  of  all  the  pagan  religions 
offered  the  most  affinity  with  Christian  insti- 
tutions. We  do  not  know  whether  the  ritual 
of  the  sacraments  and  the  hopes  attaching  to 
them  suffered  alteration  through  the  influence 
of  Mazdean  dogmas  and  practices.  Perhaps 
the  custom  of  invoking  the  Sun  three  times 
each  day, — ^at  dawn,  at  noon,  and  at  dusk,^ — was 

*  M.  Jean  Reville  {Etudes publiecs  en  hommage  a  lafaculte 
de  th^ologie  de  Montauban,  1901,  pp.  339  et  seq.)  thinks  that 
the  Gospel  story  of  the  birth  of  Christ  and  the  adoration  of  the 
Magi  was  suggested  by  the  Mithraic  legend ;  but  he  remarks 
that  we  have  no  proof  of  the  supposition.  So  also  M.  A.  Die- 
terich  in  a  recent  article  {Zeztschr.f.  Neutest.  JTiss.,  1902,  p. 
190),  in  which  he  has  endeavored  not  without  ingenuity  to  ex- 
plain the  formation  of  the  legend  of  the  Magi  kings,  admits 
that  the  worship  of  the  shepherds  was  introduced  into  Christian 
tradition  from  Mazdaism.  But  I  must  remark  that  the  Maz- 
dean beliefs  regarding  the  advent  of  Mithra  into  the  world 
have  strangely  varied.     (Cf.  T.  et  M.,  Vol.  I. ,  pp.  160  et  seq.) 


196 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


reproduced  in  the  daily  prayers  of  the  Church, 
and  it  appears  certain  that  the  commemora- 
tion of  the  Nativity  was  set  for  the  25th  of 
December,  because  it  was  at  the  winter  sol- 
stice that  the  rebirth  of  the  invincible  god,* 
the  Natalis  invicti,  was  celebrated.  In  adopt- 
ing this  date,  which  was  universally  distin- 
guished by  sacred  festivities,  the  ecclesiastical 


Fig.  45- 
BAS-RELIEF    OF    MAYENCE. 
Mithra  drawing  his  bow;  and  the  god  of  the  winds. 

authority  purified    in   some   measure  the   pro- 
fane usages  which  it  could  not  suppress. 

The  only  domain  in  which  we  can  ascertain 
in  detail  the  extent  to  which  Christianity  imi- 
tated Mithraism  is  that  of  art.  The  Mithraic 
sculpture,  which  had  been  first  developed,  fur- 
nished the  ancient  Christian  marble-cutters 
with  a  large  number  of  models,  which  they 
adopted  or  adapted.     For  example,  they  drew 

*See  above,  p.  167. 


MITIIRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     I97 

inspiration  from  the  figure  of  Mithra  causing 
the  living  waters  to  leap  forth  by  the  blows  of 
his  arrows,*  to  create  the  figure  of  Moses 
smiting  with  his  rod  the  rock  of  Horeb  (Fig. 
45).  Faithful  to  an  inveterate  tradition,  they 
even  reproduced  the  figures  of  cosmic  divini- 
ties, like  the  Heavens  and  the  Winds,  the 
worship  of  which  the  new  faith  had  expressly 
proscribed;  and  we  find  on  the  sarcophagi,  in 
miniatures,  and  even  on  the  portals  of  the 
Romance  Churches,  evidences  of  the  influence 
exerted  by  the  imposing  compositions  that 
adorned  the  sacred  grottos  of  Mithra. f 

It  would  be  wrong,  however,  to  exaggerate 
the  significance  of  these  likenesses.    4f  Chris- 

^tianity  and  Mithraism  offered  profound  reseniv 
blances,  the  principal  of  which  were  the  belief, 

"in  the  purification  of  souls  and  the  hope  of  a 

beatific  resurrection,  differences  no  less  essen- 
tial separated  them.     The  most  important  was"* 
the  contrast  of  their  relations  to  Roman  pa- 
ganism.    The  Mazdean    Mysteries  sought    to 

"conciliate  paganism  by  a  succession  of  adapta- 
tions and  compromises;  they  endeavored  to 
establish  monotheism  while  not  combating 
"^polytheism,  whereas  the  Church  was,  in  point 
of  principle,  if  not  always  in  practice,  the 
unrelenting  antagonist  of  idolatry  in  any 
form.  The  attitude  of  Mithraism  was  appar- 
ently the  wiser;  it  gave  to  the  Persian  relig- 

*See  above,  p.  13S. 
f  See  p.  227. 


198  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

ion  greater  elasticity  and  powers  of  adaptation, 
and  it  attracted  toward  the  tauroctonous  god 
all  who  stood  in  dread  of  a  painful  rupture 
with  ancient  traditions  and  contemporaneous 
society.  The  preference  must  therefore  have 
been  given  by  many  to  dogmas  that  satisfied 
their  aspirations  for  greater  purity  and  a  bet- 
ter world,  without  compelling  them  to  detest 
the  faith  of  their  fathers  and  the  State  of 
which  they  were  citizens.  As  the  Church 
grew  in  power  despite  Its  persecutors,  this 
policy  of  compromise  first  assured  to  Mlthra- 
ism  much  tolerance  and  afterward  even  the 
favor  of  the  public  authorities.  But  it  also 
prevented  it  from  freeing  itself  of  the  gross 
and  ridiculous  superstitions  which  compli- 
cated its  ritual  and  its  theology;  it  Involved 
it,  in  spite  of  its  austerity,  in  an  equivocal  alli- 
ance with  the  orgiastic  cult  of  the  beloved  of 
Attis;  and  It  compelled  It  to  carry  the  entire 
weight  of  a  chimerical  and  odious  past.  If 
Romanized  Mazdaism  had  triumphed,  it  would 
not  only  have  preserved  from  oblivion  all  the 
aberrations  of  pagan  mysticism,  but  would  also 
have  perpetuated  the  erroneous  doctrine  of 
physics  on  which  its  dogmatism  reposed.  The 
Christian  doctrine,  which  broke  with  the 
cults  of  nature,  remained  exempt  from  these 
impure  associations,  and  its  liberation  from 
every  compromising  attachment  assured  it  an 
immense  superiority.  Its  negative  value,  its 
struggle     against     deeply-rooted    prejudices, 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE     I99 

gained  for  it  as  many  souls  as  did  the  positive 
hopes  which  it  promised.  It  performed  the 
miraculous  feat  of  triumphing  over  the  an- 
cient world  in  spite  of  legislation  and  the  im- 
perial policy,  and  the  Mithraic  Mysteries  were 
promptly  abolished  the  moment  the  protection 
of  the  State  was  withdrawn  and  transformed 
into  hostility. 

Mithraism  reached  the  apogee  of  its  power 
toward  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  and  it 
appeared  for  a  moment  as  if  the  world  was  on 
the  verge  of  becoming  Mithraic.  But  the  first 
invasions  of  the  barbarians,  and  especially  the 
definitive  loss  of  Dacia  (275  A.D.),  soon  after 
followed  by  that  of  the  Agri  Decumates,  ad- 
ministered a  terrible  blow  to  the  Mazdean 
sect,  which  was  most  powerful  in  the  periphery 
of  the  orbis  RoiJiamis.  In  all  Pannonia,  and  as 
far  as  Virunum,  on  the  frontiers  of  Italy,  its 
temples  were  sacked.  By  way  of  compensa- 
tion, the  authorities,  menaced  by  the  rapid 
progress  of  Christianity,  renewed  their  sup- 
port to  the  most  redoubtable  adversary  that 
they  could  oppose  to  it.  In  the  universal 
downfall  the  army  was  the  only  institution 
that  remained  standing,  and  the  Caesars  cre- 
ated by  the  legions  were  bound  perforce  to 
seek  their  support  in  the  favored  religion  of 
their  soldiers.  In  273  A.D.,  Aurelian  founded 
by  the  side  of  the  Mysteries  of  the  taurocto- 
nous  god  a  public  religion,  which  he  richly 
endowed,  in  honor  of  the  Sol  mvictus.     Dio- 


200  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

cletian,  whose  court  with  its  complicated  hier- 
archy, its  prostrations  before  its  lord,  and  its 
crowds  of  eunuchs,  was,  by  the  admission  of 
contemporaries,  an  imitation  of  the  court  of 
the  Sassanids,  was  naturally  inclined  to  adopt 
doctrines  of  Persian  origin,  which  flattered  his 
despotic  instincts.  The  emperor  and  the 
princes  whom  he  had  associated  with  himself, 
meeting  in  conference  at  Carnuntum  in  307 
A.D.,  restored  there  one  of  the  temples  of  the 
celestial  protector  of  their  newly-organized 
empire.*  The  Christians  believed,  not  with- 
out some  appearance  of  reason,  that  the  Mith- 
raic  clergy  were  the  instigators  of  the  great 
persecutions  under  Galerius.  In  the  Roman 
empire  as  in  Iran,  a  vaguely  monistic  heliol- 
atry  appeared  on  the  verge  of  becoming  the 
sole,  intolerant  religion  of  state.  But  the  con- 
version of  Constantine  shattered  the  hopes 
which  the  policy  of  his  predecessors  had  held 
out  to  the  worshippers  of  the  sun.  Although 
he  did  not  persecute  the  beliefs  which  he  him- 
self had  shared, f  they  ceased  to  constitute  a 
recognized  cult  and  were  tolerated  only.  His 
successors  were  outspokenly  hostile.  To 
latent  deflance  succeeded  open  persecution. 
Christian  polemics  no  longer  restricted  its 
attacks  to  ridiculing  the  legends  and  practices 
of  the  Mazdean  Mysteries,  nor  even  to  taunt- 

*  See  above,  pp.  8S-89. 

\Cf.  Preger,  Konstantiitos-Helios  (Hermes,  XXXVI),  1901, 
P-  457- 


M 


ITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE    201 


ing  them  for  having  as  their  founders  the  irrec- 
oncilable enemies  of  Rome;  it  now  stridently 
demanded  the  total  destruction  of  idolatry, 
and  its  exhortations  were  promptly  carried 
into  effect.  When  a  rhetorician*  tells  us  that 
under  Constantius  no  one  longer  dared  to  look 
at  the  rising  or  setting  sun,  that  even  farmers 
and  sailors  refrained  from  observing  the  stars, 
and  tremblingly  held  their  eyes  fixed  upon  the 
ground,  we  have  in  these  emphatic  declara- 
tions a  magnified  echo  of  the  fears  that  then 
filled  all  pagan  hearts. 

The  proclamation  of  Julian  the  Apostate 
(331-363  A.D.)  suddenly  inaugurated  an  unex- 
pected turn  in  affairs.  A  philosopher,  seated 
on  the  throne  by  the  armies  of  Gaul,  Julian 
had  cherished  from  childhood  a  secret  devo- 
tion for  Helios.  He  was  firmly  convinced  that 
this  god  had  rescued  him  from  the  perils  that 
menaced  his  youth;  he  believed  that  he  was 
entrusted  by  him  with  a  divine  mission,  and 
regarded  himself  as  his  servitor,  or  rather  as 
his  spiritual  son.  He  dedicated  to  this  celes- 
tial "king"  a  discourse  in  which  the  ardor  of 
his  faith  transforms  in  places  a  cold  theolog- 
ical dissertation  into  an  inflamed  dithyrambic, 
and  the  fervor  of  his  devotion  for  the  star 
that  he  worshipped  never  waned  to  the  mo- 
ment of  his  death. 

The   young   prince    had    been    presumably 
drawn  to  the  Mysteries   by  his  superstitious 

*Mamert.,  Grat.  actio  in  Itilian.,  c.  23. 


202  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

predilection  for  the  supernatural.  Before  his 
accession,  perhaps  even  from  youth,  he  had 
been  introduced  secretly  into  a  Mithraic  con- 
venticle by  the  philosopher  Maximus  of  Eph- 
^y  esus.  The  ceremonies  of  his  initiation  must 
have  made  a  deep  impression  on  his  feelings. 
He  imagined  himself  thenceforward  under  the 
special  patronage  of  Mithra,  in  this  life  and  in 
that  to  come.  As  soon  as  he  had  cast  aside 
his  mask  and  openly  proclaimed  himself  a 
pagan,  he  called  Maximus  to  his  side,  and 
doubtless  had  recourse  to  extraordinary  ablu- 
tions and  purifications  to  wipe  out  the  stains 
which  he  had  contracted  in  receiving  the  bap- 
tism and  the  communion  of  the  Christians. 
Scarcely  had  he  ascended  the  throne  (361  A.D.) 
than  he  made  haste  to  introduce  the  Persian  cult 
at  Constantinople;  and  almost  simultaneously 
the  first  taurobolia  were  celebrated  at  Athens. 
On  all  sides  the  sectaries  of  the  Magi  lifted 
their  heads.  At  Alexandria  the  patriarch 
George,  in  attempting  to  erect  a  church  on  the 
ruins  of  a  mithra:um,  provoked  a  sanguinary 
riot.  Arrested  by  the  magistrates,  he  was 
torn  from  his  prison  and  cruelly  slain  by  the 
populace  on  the  24th  of  December,  361,  the 
eve  of  the  A^atalis  iiivicii.  The  emperor  con- 
tented himself  with  addressing  a  paternal 
remonstrance  to  the  city  of  Serapis. 
\/^  But  the  Apostate  soon  met  his  death  in  the 
historic  expedition  against  the  Persians,  to 
which    he    had    possibly   been    drawn    b}^  the 


\  / 

V 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE    203 

secret  desire  to  conquer  the  land  which  had 
given  him  his  faith  and  by  the  assurance  that 
his  tutelary  god  would  accept  his  homage 
rather  than  that  of  his  enemies.  Thus  per- 
ished this  spasmodic  attempt  at  reaction,  and 
Christianity,  now  definitively  victor,  addressed 
itself  to  the  task  of  extirpating  the  erroneous 
doctrine  that  had  caused  it  so  much  anxiety. 
Even  before  the  emperors  had  forbidden  the 
exercise  of  idolatry,  their  edicts  against  astrol- 
ogy and  magic  furnished  an  indirect  means  of 
attacking  the  clergy  and  disciples  of  Mithra. 
In  371  A.D.,  a  number  of  persons  who  culti- 
vated occult  practices  were  implicated  in  a 
pretended  conspiracy  and  put  to  death.  The 
mystagogue  Maximus  himself  perished  as  the 
victim  of  an  accusation  of  this  kind. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  imperial  govern- 
melirTegislated  formally  and  directly  against 
the  disgraced  sect.  In  the  provinces,  popular 
uprisings  frequently  anticipated  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  magistrates.  Mobs  sacked  the 
temples  and  committed  them  to  the  flames, 
with  the  complicity  of  the  authorities.  The 
ruins  of  the  mithraeums  bear  witness  to  the 
violence  of  their  devastating  fury.  Even  at 
Rome,  in  2>11  A.D.,  the  prefect  Gracchus, 
seeking  the  privilege  of  baptism,  offered  as  a 
pledge  of  the  sincerity  of  his  conversion  the 
"destruction,  shattering,  and  shivering,"*  of  a 

*St.  Jerome,  Epist.  107  ad  Lcetam  {T.  et  M.,  Vol.  IT.,  p. 
18),  siibvertit,  f regit,  excussit. 


204 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


Mithraic  crypt,  with  all  the  statues  that  it  con- 
tained. Frequently,  in  order  to  protect  their 
grottoes  from  pillage  by  making  them  inac- 
cessible, the  priests  walled  up  the  entrances, 
or  conveyed  their  sacred  images  to  well-pro- 
tected hiding-places,  convinced  that  the  tern- 


Fig.  46. 

CHAINED    SKELETON. 

Discovered    in    the    ruins    of    a    Mithraic   temple    at 
Sarrebourg,  in  Lorraine.     {T.  et  M.,  p.  51Q.) 

pest  that  had  burst  upon  them  was  momentary 
only,  and  that  after  their  days  of  trial  their 
god  would  cause  again  to  shine  forth  the  light 
of  final  triumph.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Christians,  in  order  to  render  places  contami- 
nated by  the  presence  of  a  dead  body  ever 
afterward  unfit  for  worship,  sometimes  slew 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE    205 

the  refractory  priests  of  Mithra  and  buried 
them  in  the  ruins  of  their  sanctuaries,  now 
forever  profaned  (P  ig.  46). 

The  hope  of  restoration  was  especially 
tenacious  at  Rome,  which  remained  the  cap- 
ital of  paganism.  The  aristocracy,  still  faith- 
ful to  the  traditions  of  their  ancestors, 
supported  the  j^eligion  with  their  wealth  and 
prestige.  Its  members  loved  to  deck  them- 
selves with  the  titles  of  "Father  and  Herald 
of  Mithra  Invincible,"  and  multiplied  the 
offerings  and  the  foundations.  They  re- 
doubled their  generosity  toward  him  when 
,Gratian  in  382  A.D.  despoiled  their  temples 
ofTHetf~wealth.  A  great  lord  recounts  to  us 
in  poor  verses  how  he  had  restored  a  splendid 
crypt  erected  by  his  grandfather  near  the 
Flaminian  Way,  boasting  that  he  was  able  to 
dispense  with  public  subsidies  of  any  kind.* 
The  usurpation  of  Eugenius  appeared  for  a 
moment  to  bring  on  the  expected  resurrec- 
tion. The  prefect  of  the  prretorium,  Nicoma- 
chus  Flavianus,  celebrated  solemn  taurobolia 
and  renewed  in  a  sacred  cave  the  Mysteries 
of  the  "associate  god"  {deiini  coinitcni)  of  the 
pretender.  But  the  victory  of  Theodosius, 
394  A.D.,  shattered  once  and  foT"alt"rlTe  hopes 
oflTiese  belated  partisans  of  the  ancient  Maz- 
dean  belief. 

A  few  clandestine  conventicles  may,  with 
stubborn  persistence,  have  been   held   in   the 

*CIL,  VI,  {T.  et  M.,  Vol  II,  p.  94,  No.  13). 


206  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

subterranean  retreats  of  the  palaces.  The 
cult  of  the  Persian  god  possibly  existed  as  late 
as  the  fifth  century  in  certain  remote  cantons 
of  the  Alps  and  the  Vosges.  For  example, 
devotion  to  the  Mithraic  rites  long  persisted 
in  the  tribe  of  the  Anauni,  masters  of  a  flour- 
ishing valley,  of  which  a  narrow  defile  closed 
the  mouth.  But  little  by  little  its  last  disciples 
in  the  Latin  countries  abandoned  a  religion 
tainted  with  moral  as  well  as  political  deca- 
dence. It  maintained  its  ground  with  greater 
tenacity  in  the  Orient,  the  land  of  its  birth. 
Driven  out  of  the  rest  of  the  empire,  it  found 
a  refuge  in  the  countries  of  its  origin,  where 
its  light  only  slowly  flickered  out. 

Nevertheless,  the  conceptions  which  Mith- 
raism  had  diffused  throughout  the  empire 
during  a  period  of  three  centuries  were  not 
destined  to  perish  with  it.  Some  of  them, 
even  those  most  characteristic  of  it,  such  as 
its  ideas  concerning  Hell,  the  efficacy  of  the 
sacraments,  and  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh, 
were  accepted  even  by  its  adversaries;  and  in 
disseminating  them  it  had  simply  accelerated 
their  universal  domination.  Certain  of  its 
sacred  practices  continued  to  exist  also  in  the 
ritual  of  Christian  festivals  and  in  popular 
usage.  Its  fundamental  dogmas,  however, 
were  irreconcilable  with  orthodox  Christian- 
ity, outside  of  which  only  they  could  maintain 
their  hold.  Its  theory  of  sidereal  influences, 
alternately    condemned     and    tolerated,    was 


MITHRAISM  AND  THE  RELIGIONS  OF  THE  EMPIRE    20/ 

carried  down  by  astrology  to  the  threshold  of 
modern  times;  but  it  was  to  a  religion  more 
powerful  than  this  false  science  that  the  Per- 
sian Mysteries  were  destined  to  bequeath, 
along  with  their  hatred  of  the  Church,  their 
cardinal  ideas  and  their  influence  over  the 
masses. 

Manichaeism,  although  the  work  of  a  man 
and  not  the  product  of  a  long  evolution,  was 
connected  with  these  Mysteries  by  numerous 
affijikies.  The  tradition  according  to  which 
Its  original  founders  had  conversed  in  Persia 
with  the  priests  of  Mithra  may  be  inexact  in 
form,  but  it  involves  nevertheless  a  profound 
truth.  Both  religions  had  been  formed  in  the 
Orient  from  a  mixture  of  the  ancient  Babylon- 
ian mythology  with  Persian  dualism,  and  had 
afterward  absorbed  Hellenic  elements.  The 
sect  of  Manichceus  spread  throughout  the  em- 
pire during  the  fourth  century,  at  the  moment 
when  Mithraism  was  expiring,  and  it  was 
called  to  assume  the  latter's  succession.  Mys- 
tics whom  the  polemics  of  the  Church  against 
paganism  had  shaken  but  not  converted  were 
enraptured  with  the  new  conciliatory  faith 
which  suffered  Zoroaster  and  Christ  to  be 
simultaneously  worshipped.  The  wide  dif- 
fusion which  the  Mazdean  beliefs  with  their 
mixture  of  Chaldasism  had  enjoyed,  prepared 
the  minds  of  the  empire  for  the  reception  of 
the  new  heresy.  The  latter  found  its  way 
made  smooth  for  it,  and  this  is  the  secret  of 


208  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

its  sudden  expansion.  Thus^renewed,  the 
Mithraic  doctrines  were  destined  to  withstand 
for  centuries  all  persecutions,  and  rising  again 
Tin  a  new  form  in  the  Middle  Ages  to  shake 
once  more  the  ancient  Roman  world. 


MITHRAIC    ART* 

THE  monuments  of  Mithraism,  which  have 
been  found  in  considerable  numbers  in 
the  provinces  of  the  Occident  and  even  in 
the  Orient,  constitute  a  homogeneous  group, 
of  which  it  is  desirable  to  characterize  the  im- 
portance for  the  history  of  Roman  art.  In 
point  of  fact,  their  artistic  merit  is  far  below 
that  of  their  value  as  historical  documents,  and 
their  chief  worth  is  not  aesthetic  but  religious. 
The  late  epoch  in  which  these  works  were 
produced  destroys  the  least  hope  of  finding  in 
them  any  expression  of  true  creative  power  or 
of  following  in  them  the  progress  of  any  orig- 
inal development.  But  it  would  be  unjust  if, 
inspired  by  a  narrow-minded  Atticism,  we 
should  cast  upon  them  all  a  like  measure  of 
reproach.  In  the  absence  of  inventive  genius, 
their  cleverness  in  the  adaptation  of  ancient 
motifs  and  the  manual  skill  shown  in  their  ex- 
ecution,— all  technical  qualities  of  which  they 
give  evidence, — would  alone  be  sufficient  to 
claim  our  attention.  Some  of  the  groups  in 
high  and  low  relief, — for  the  paintings  and 
mosaics  which  have  been  preserved  are  so  few 
and  mediocre  as  to  dispense  us  from  speaking 

*In   the   original   this  chapter  appeared  as  an  Appendix. 
We  have  given  it  an  independent  place  in  this  edition, — Tr. 

209 


210  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

of  them, — hold  a  very  honorable  place  in  the 
multitude  of  sculptured  works  which  the  im- 
perial period  has  left  us,  and  are  deserving  of 
some  consideration. 

It  can  be  proved*  that  all  our  representations 
of  the  tauroctonous  Mithra,  the  hieratic  figure 
of  which  was  fixed  before  the  propagation  of 
the  Mysteries  in  the  Occident,  are  more  or  less 
faithful  replicas  of  a  type  created  by  a  sculptor 
of  the  school  of  Pergamon,  in  imitation  of  the 
sacrificing  Victory  which  adorned  the  balus- 
trade of  the  temple  of  Athena  Nike  on  the 
Acropolis.  Certain  marbles  discovered  at 
Rome  and  at  Ostia  (see  for  example,  Figs.  4, 
5,  6  and  10),  which  unquestionably  go  back  to 
the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  still 
reflect  the  splendor  of  the  powerful  com- 
positions of  the  Hellenistic  epoch.  After  an 
ardent  pursuit,  the  god  captures  the  bull, 
which  has  fallen  to  the  earth;  with  one 
knee  on  its  croup  and  his  foot  on  one  of  its 
hoofs,  he  bears  down  upon  it,  pressing  it 
against  the  earth;  and  grasping  it  by  the  nos- 
trils with  one  hand,  with  the  other  he  plunges 
a  knife  into  its  flank.  The  impetuosity  of  this 
animated  scene  throws  into  high  relief  the 
agility  and  strength  of  the  invincible  hero. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  suffering  of  the  mori- 
bund victim  gasping  its  last,  with  its  limbs  con- 
tracted in  the  spasms  of  death,  the  singular 

♦Compare  my  large  work,  Textes  et  Mo?tujnenfs  figiirh 
relatifs  aux  Mystires  de  Mithra,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  180  et  seq. 


MITHRAIC    ART  211 

mixture  of  exaltation  and  remorse  depicted  in 
the  countenance  of  its  slayer,  give  prominence 
to  the  pathetic  side  of  this  sacred  drama,  and 
even  to-day  inspire  in  the  heart  of  the  spec- 
tator an  emotion  which  the  faithful  of  old  ex- 
perienced in  all  its  living  power.  (See  Fio. 
44  and  also  the  cover-stamp  of  this  book.) 

The  traditional  type  of  torch-bearers,  or 
dadopJiori,  was  not  susceptible  of  a  similar  im- 
passioned treatment.  But  one  remarks,  never- 
theless, in  the  best  specimens  the  advantageous 
effect  which  the  artist  has  produced  by  the 
ample  Phrygian  garments  and  by  emphasizing 
the  different  emotions  of  hope  and  sadness 
portrayed  on  the  countenances  of  the  two 
young  men.  We  possess  a  remarkable  repro- 
duction of  this  divine  couple  in  the  two  statues 
discovered  near  the  Tiber,  which  Zoega  attrib- 
uted to  the  epoch  of  Hadrian  and  which  were 
possibly  imported  from  the  Orient  to  Italy.* 
(See  Figures  47  and  48.)  It  will  be  seen  how 
their  author  succeeded  in  offsetting  the 
defective  symmetry  resulting  from  the  fact 
that  the  two  figures,  which  are  intended  as 
counterparts,  have  both  their  mantles  fastened 
at  the  right  shoulder  and  falling  down  at  the 
right  side. 

The  solicitous  concern  for  details  which 
characterizes  the  works  of  the  Antonine  epoch 
was  also  bestowed  with   more  or  less  felicity 

*  T.  ct  M.,  Mon.  27,  Plate  II,  opposite  p.  209,  Vol.  II. 
Conmut  thinks  these  statues  are  prior  to  Hadrian. 


212 


THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 


upon  the  monuments  of  a  slightly  more  recent 
date.      Consider   the   group    of   Ostia,    which 


Fig-  47. 
MITHRAIC    DADOPHORUS. 
Wrongly  restored  as  Paris. 

dates  from  the  reign  of  Commodus,  or  the  bas- 
relief  of  the  \'illa  Albani,  which  appears  to  be 


MITHRAIC    ART 


213 


contemporaneous  with  the  first.*     The  artist 
delighted  in   multiplying  the  folds  of  the  gar- 


Fig-.  48. 

MITHRAIC    DADOPHORUS. 
Wrongly  restored  as  Paris. 


ments  and  in  increasing  the  undulations  of  the 
hair  merely  to  show  his  skill  in  conquering  the 

*  T.  et  M.,  Mon.  79,  Fig.  67;  and  Mon.  3S,  Fig.  45. 


214  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

difficulties  which  he  had  himself  created;  yet 
even  this  bizaj-re  mannerism  does  not  atone 
for  the  coldness  of  the  total  impression.  The 
success  of  this  minute  execution  of  details  is 
more  felicitous  in  fragments  of  smaller  dimen- 
sions. A  small  marble  recently  discovered  in 
Aquileia,  and  reproduced  in  our  Frontispiece 
is  distinguished  in  this  respect  by  a  "bewilder- 
ing cleverness  of  technique."  The  delicately 
carved  figures  are  almost  entirely  severed  from 
their  massive  base,  to  which  they  are  attached 
only  by  the  thinnest  supports.  It  is  a  piece  of 
artistic  braggadocio  in  which  the  sculptor 
parades  his  virtuosity  by  producing  with  a  brit- 
tle material  the  same  effects  that  are  obtained 
by  workers  in  ductile  metals.* 

But  these  comparatively  perfect  composi- 
tions are  rare  in  Italy  and  especially  so  in  the 
provinces,  and  it  has  to  be  acknowledged  that 
the  great  mass  of  the  Mithraic  monuments  is 
of  discouraging  mediocrity.     The  hewers  and 

*M.  von  Schneider,  loc.  cit..  Vol.  II.,  p.  488,  who  sees  in 
this  composition  ''ein  verbli'iffetides  tccJuiisches  Gesc/u'ck," 
compares  it  with  the  rehef  on  the  base  of  the  Antonine  column 
(Brunn,  Denkmdicr  gr.  it.  rom.  Skulptur,  PI.  210/^),  and  a  bas- 
relief  of  the  Campo  Santo  of  Pisa  (Diitschke,  Bildwerke  in 
Ober-Iialiett,  I.,  No.  60),  and  the  bust  of  Commodus  in  the 
Palais  des  Conservateurs  (Helbig,  Fuhrer,  second  ed. ,  No. 
524).  The  same  application  of  the  technique  of  metal-work- 
ing to  marble  may  be  noticed  in  two  admirably  preserved  busts 
which  were  discovered  at  Smyrna  and  are  to-day  to  be  found 
in  the  Museum  at  Brussels  {Cat a/,  des  anfigj///ecs  acqjiises 
par  It's  musees  royaiix  dcpnis  Ic  /'•<'  Jafiv/er  igoo,  Bruxelles, 
1901,  Nos.  iio-iii). 


MITHRAIC   ART  21$ 

cutters  of  stone — they  deserve  no  other  name 
— who  are  responsible  for  these  productions, 
were  often  content  with  roughly  outlining  by 
a  few  strokes  of  the  chisel  the  scene  which 
they  pretended  to  reproduce.  A  garish  color- 
ing then  emphasized  certain  details.  The 
work  is  sometimes  so  hastily  executed  that 
the  contours  alone  are  distinctly  marked,  as 
in  the  hieroglyphics.  It  sufficed,  it  is  true, 
merely  to  outline  representations,  the  meaning 
of  which  every  faithful  devotee  knew  and 
which  he  completed  in  imagination;  and  it  is 
our  ignorance  that  feels  so  vividly  the  imper- 
fections of  these  awkward  and  vague  compo- 
sitions. Still,  some  of  the  smaller  bas-reliefs 
could  never  have  been  more  than  downright 
caricatures  bordering  on  the  grotesque,  and 
their  deformities  strongly  remind  us  of  the 
little  toy  gingerbread  men  which  are  sold  at 
our  fairs. 

The  carelessness  with  which  these  tablets 
were  executed  is  excused  by  their  places  of 
destination.  The  mystics  of  Mithra  were  wont 
not  only  to  consecrate  them  in  their  temples, 
but  also  to  adorn  with  them  their  modest 
dwelling-houses.  This  domestic  consumption 
explains  the  enormous  quantity  of  these  monu- 
ments, which  have  been  found  wherever  the 
cult  penetrated.  To  satisfy  the  incessant 
demand  of  the  faithful  for  these  figures,  the 
workshops  in  which  they  were  carved  must 
have  produced  them  rapidly  and  in  quantities. 


2l6  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

The  manufacturers  of  this  brummagem  sculp- 
ture had  no  other  thought  than  that  of  cheaply 
satisfying  their  clientage  of  devotees,  whose 
artistic  tastes  were  far  from  exacting.  The 
ancient  manufacturers  turned  out  hundreds  of 
smaller  tauroctonous  Mithras,*  just  as  our 
image-makers  multiply  in  profusion  the  very 
same  type  of  crucifixes  and  the  very  same 
Virgin  Mary.  It  was  the  religious  imagery 
of  the  epoch,  and  it  was  not  more  esthetic 
than  is  ours  to-day. 

These  manufacturers  did  not  restrict  them- 
selves to  the  unceasing  production  of  replicas 
of  the  same  traditional  type;  they  sought  to 
diversify  their  wares,  in  order  to  recommend 
them  to  all  tastes  and  purses.  Look  only  at 
the  series  of  ex-votos  found  in  the  mithra^um 
of  Sarmizegetusa  in  Dacia.f  We  find  here 
specimens  of  all  the  models  that  the  work- 
shops of  the  place  reproduced.  High  reliefs, 
which  are  difficult  and  costly,  are  avoided.  At 
most,  the  marble  was  perforated  in  places,  so 
as  to  show  forth  the  group  of  the  taurocto- 
nous god.  But  what  a  wondrous  variety  in  the 
small  bas-reliefs  which  were  affixed  to  the 
walls  of  the  sanctuaries  !  For  a  mere  bagatelle 
square  tablets  could  be  obtained  bearing  only 

*  The  absence  of  machinery  naturally  excluded  any  absolute 
resemblance,  but  some  of  our  bas-reliefs  are  certainlj'  from  the 
same  hand  or  at  least  from  the  same  workshop.  Cf.  T.  rf  J/., 
Vol.  II.,  Mon.  45  and  46;  Figs.  85  and  95,  Fig.  87;  192  and  192 
bt's;  194  and  195. 

f  T.  ct  M.,  Vol.  II.,  NoF.  13S  to  1S3. 


MITHRAIC    ART  217 

the  immolation  of  the  bull.  Sometimes  its 
value  is  enhanced  by  the  addition  of  a  sort  of 
predella,  divided  into  three  or  four  smaller 
scenes.  Again,  its  composition  is  complicated 
by  an  upper  panel  decorated  with  accessory 
scenes.  These,  finally,  also  occupy  the  bor- 
ders of  the  monuments,  and  encompass  on  four 
sides  the  principal  representation.  Again,  the 
fancy  of  the  workman  taking  flight,  the  tauroc- 
tonous  god  has  been  enclosed  in  a  circle  orna- 
mented with  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  or  in  a 
crown  of  foliage.  Frames  were  added  or 
omitted.  Considerable  ingenuity  was  exer- 
cised to  give  new  forms  to  the  sculptured 
plaques.  They  were  indiscriminately  square, 
oblong,  semicircular,  trapezoidal,  or  even 
round.  There  are  no  two  of  these  pieces 
which  are  exactly  alike. 

If  these  commercial  products  of  labor  for 
hire  have  only  the  remotest  relationship  with 
art,  they  nevertheless  furnish  a  valuable  com- 
mentary upon  the  stone-hewing  industry  of 
antiquity.  We  have  many  proofs  that  a 
goodly  portion  of  the  sculptures  intended  for 
the  provincial  cities  were  executed  during  the 
imperial  epoch  at  Rome.*  This  is  probably 
the  case  with  some  of  the  monuments  discov- 
ered in  Gaul,  and  also  for  those  which  adorned 
a  mithraeum  in  London. f  On  the  other  hand, 
certain  statues  discovered  in  the  capital  were 

*  Friedlander,  Sittengeschichte,  Vol.  III.,  p.  280. 

■f-  T.  et  M.,  Vol.  II.,  Mon.  267  and  the  note  on  p.  390. 


2l8  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

presumably  imported  from  Asia  Minor."  The 
beautiful  bas-reliefs  of  Virunum  were  likewise 
brought  from  abroad,  probably  by  way  of 
Aquileia.  We  know  by  the  passion  of  the 
Four  Crowned  Ones  the  importance  of  the 
quarries  of  Pannonia  in  the  third  century,t 
where  marble  was  not  only  quarried  but 
worked.  These  stone-yards  appear  to  have 
been  an  important  center  for  the  manufacture 
of  Mithraic  votive  offerings.  In  any  event, 
there  are  several  of  them,  exhumed  in  the 
temples  of  Germany,  which  were  unquestion- 
ably sculptured  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube. 
These  facts  cast  an  interesting  light  on  the 
traffic  in  church  ornaments  during  the  days  of 
paganism. 

Yet  the  majority  of  the  Mithraic  monuments 
were  undoubtedly  executed  on  the  spot.  The 
matter  is  clear  for  thc^e  which  were  sculptured 
on  the  walls  of  natural  rocks  smoothed  for  the 
purpose, — they  are  unfortunately  all  greatly 
damaged, — but  the  proof  of  local  manufacture 
for  many  others  is  also  forcibly  forthcoming 
from  the  nature  of  the  stone  employed.  The 
construction    of      these     fragments     likewise 

*  T.  et  Af.,  Vol.  II.,  Mon.  235  and  the  note  on  p.  338.  Cf. 
supra,  p.  122,  Fig.  26. 

f  Wattenbach,  Passio  sanct,  quatuor  coronat.,  with  the 
notes  of  Benndorf  and  Max  BUdinger,  1870;  cf.  Friedlander, 
op.  ctf.,'p.  282.  A  new  text  has  been  published  by  Watten- 
bach, Sif^tmgsb.  Akad.,  Berlin,  XLVII.,  1S96,  p.  1281  <?/  scq. 
There  still  exists  of  this  work  an  unpublished  Greek  transla- 
tion;  cf.  Aftalecta  Bolhmdiana,  XVI.,  1897,  p.  337. 


MITHRAIC    ART  2I9 

clearly  reveals  that  they  are  not  the  handi- 
work of  foreign  masters  and  of  some  great 
center  of  art,  nor  even  of  those  nomadic  sculp- 
tors who  traversed  the  land  in  quest  of  lucra- 
tive or  honorific  employment,  but  of  the 
modest  stone-cutters  of  some  neighboring 
town. 

The  local  origin  of  the  largest  monuments 
is  best  established,  since  their  transportation 
would  have  involved  both  numerous  risks  and 
extravagant  expenditures.  Our  collection  of 
large  Mithraic  bas-reliefs  thus  constitutes  a 
highly  interesting  group  for  the  study  of  the 
provincial  art  of  the  empire.  Like  the  mass 
of  votive  tablets  that  have  come  down  to  us, 
these  sculptures,  which  were  exhibited  in  the 
apse  of  the  temples  for  the  adoration  of  the 
faithful,  are  also  far  from  being  masterpieces 
of  art.  But  they  were  nevertheless  not  exe- 
cuted with  the  same  carelessness,  and  we  feel 
in  their  presence  that  their  authors  bestowed 
upon  them  their  best  energies.  If  the  artists 
afforded  no  proof  of  originality  in  the  inven- 
tion of  subjects,  they  nevertheless  give  evi- 
dence of  ingenuity  in  the  arrangement  of  their 
figures  and  of  their  skill  in  handling  the 
material. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  further,  in  judging 
of  these  fragments,  that  the  painter  came  to 
the  aid  of  the  sculptor  and  that  the  brush 
completed  what  the  chisel  had  only  sketched. 
On  the  naked   marble  or  on  stone  coated  with 


220  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

plaster,  flaring  colors  were  laid:  green,  blue, 
yellow,  black,  and  all  shades  of  red  were  wan- 
tonly intermingled.  This  glaring  contrast  of 
tones  accentuated  the  main  contours  of  the 
figures,  and  made  prominent  their  secondary 
parts.  In  many  cases  the  details  were  only 
indicated  with  the  brush.  Gilding,  finally, 
emphasized  certain  subsidiary  features.  In 
the  penumbral  darkness  of  the  subterranean 
crypts,  the  reliefs  of  these  sculptured  composi- 
tions would  have  been  almost  invisible  without 
this  brilliant  polychromatic  vesture.  Vivid 
variety  of  coloring,  moreover,  was  one  of  the 
traditions  of  Oriental  art,  and  Lucian  had 
already  contrasted  the  simple  and  graceful 
forms  of  the  Hellenic  deities  with  the  ostenta- 
tious gaudery  of  the  gods  imported  from 
Asia.* 

The  most  remarkable  of  these  sculptures 
have  been  brought  to  light  in  the  north  of 
Gaul,  or,  more  precisely,  on  the  Rhenish  fron- 
tier. It  appears  that  we  must  attribute  this 
entire  group  of  monuments  to  that  interesting 
school  of  sculpture  which  flourished  in  Belgium 
in  the  second  and  third  centuries,  the  produc- 
tions of  which  unquestionably  surpass  those  of 
the  workshops  of  the  south.  One  cannot  con- 
template the  bas-relief  of  Osterburken,  which 
is  the  most  complete  of  the  series,  without 
being  impressed  with  the  wealth  and  the  gen- 
eral harmony  of  this  vast  composition.     The 

*  Lucian,  Jup.  trag.,  §8. 


MITHRAIC    ART  221 

confused  impression  resulting  from  the  accu- 
mulation of  personages  and  groups,- — a  defect 
which  the  Mithraic  monuments  show  with 
many  others  of  their  epoch,  and  especially 
with  the  sarcophagi,  the  composition  of  which 
is  generally  intricate, — is  here  tempered  by  the 
judicious  use  of  separating  bands  and  frames. 
If  we  were  anxious  to  criticize  the  details  of 
these  works,  it  would  be  easy  to  point  out  the 
disproportion  of  certain  of  their  figures,  the 
awkwardness  of  certain  of  their  movements, 
and  sometimes  the  stiffness  of  their  attitudes 
and  vestments.  But  these  defects  should  not 
render  us  oblivious  to  the  delicacy  of  the  work 
here  performed  with  a  crumbling  material, 
and  especially  to  the  praiseworthy  success  with 
which  a  conception  of  real  grandeur  has  been 
realized.  To  attempt  to  represent  on  stone 
not  only  the  gods  but  the  cosmogony  of  the 
Mysteries  and  the  episodes  of  the  legend  of 
Mithra,  even  to  the  final  immolation  of  the 
bull,  was  an  undertaking  attended  with  great 
perils  and  is  a  meritorious  achievement  even 
in  partial  success.  Even  prior  to  this  date, 
and  particularly  on  the  sarcophagi,  instances 
occur  where  the  successive  moments  of  the 
drama  are  depicted  on  superposed  or  parallel 
plates,  but  we  cannot,  nevertheless,  cite  a  sin- 
gle monument  of  Roman  paganism  which  can 
be  compared  in  this  respect  to  our  grand  bas- 
reliefs,  and  for  similar  productions  we  must 
wait  for  the  lengthy  compositions  with  which 


222  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

the  Christian  mosaicists  decorated  the  walls 
of  their  churches. 

We  shall  not  inquire  here  into  the  origin  of 
each  one  of  the  different  representations  which 
are  portrayed  upon  our  monuments;  we  shall 
merely  observe  that  in  spite  of  their  variety 
two  or  even  three  clearly  marked  classes  may 
be  distinguished.  Some  of  the  figures  have 
been  borrowed  outright  from  the  traditional 
types  of  Graico-Roman  art.  Ahura-Mazda 
destroying  the  monsters  that  had  risen 
against  him  is  a  Hellenic  Zeus  annihilating 
the  giants  with  his  bolts;  Verethragna  is  trans- 
formed into  a  Hercules;  Helios  is  a  young 
man  with  long  flowing  hair,  mounted  on  the 
usual  quadriga;  Neptune,  Venus,  Diana,  Mer- 
cury, Mars,  Pluto,  Saturn,  are  shown  to  us  in 
their  ordinary  aspect  with  the  garb  and  at- 
tributes which  are  known  to  have  been  theirs 
from  time  immemorial.  Similarly,  the  Winds, 
the  Seasons,  and  the  Planets  had  been  personi- 
fied long  before  the  propagation  of  Mithraism, 
and  the  latter  cult  had  onl}^  to  reproduce  in  its 
temples  the  models  that  had  long  since  been 
made  popular. 

On  the  other  hand,  one  personage  at  least 
is  a  transformation  of  an  Asiatic  archetype; 
this  is  the  leontocephalous,  or  lion-headed, 
Kronos.  (See  Figs.  20-23.)  Like  the  majority 
of  his  compeers,  this  animal-headed  monster 
is  a  creation  of  the  Oriental  imagination.  His 
genealogy  would  doubtless  carry  us  back  to 


MITHRAIC    KKONOS,    OR    PERSONIFICATION    OF    INFINITE 

TIME. 
Surrounded  by  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac  (see  p.  121).  In  the 
corners  the  gods  of  the  Winds.  Here  represented  without  the 
head  of  a  lion,  which  appears  on  the  breast  of  the  figure. 
A  Roman  beautification  of  the  horrific  features  of  the  Oriental 
god.     (Bas-rehef  of  Modena,  Rev.  arch.,  igo2,  I.,  p.  i.)         223 


224  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

the  period  of  Assyrian  sculpture.  But  the 
artists  of  the  Occident,  having  to  represent  a 
deity  entirely  strange  to  the  Greek  Pantheon, 
and  being  untrammelled  by  the  traditions  of 
any  school,  gave  free  rein  to  their  fancy.  The 
various  transformations  to  which  they  sub- 
jected his  figure  were  in  part  influenced  by 
religious  considerations,  which  tended  to  com- 
plicate the  symbolism  of  this  deified  abstrac- 
tion and  to  multiply  more  and  more  his 
attributes,  and  in  part  by  an  aesthetic  solicitude 
to  soften  as  much  as  possible  the  monstrous 
character  of  this  barbaric  personage,  and  thus 
gradually  to  humanize  it.  Ultimately  they 
suppressed  the  lion's  head,  and  contented 
themselves  with  representing  this  animal  by 
its  feet  only,  or  with  placing  the  head  of  the 
beast  on  the  figure's  breast.     (See  Fig.  49.) 

The  leontocephalous  god  of  Eternity  is  the 
most  original  creation  of  Mithraic  art,  and  if  it 
is  totally  destitute  of  the  charm  of  grace,  its 
unwonted  aspect  and  the  suggestive  accumu- 
lation of  its  attributes  awakened  curiosity  and 
provoked  reflection.  With  the  exception  of 
this  god  of  Time,  we  can  establish  the  Orien- 
tal origin  of  certain  emblems  only,  like  the 
Phrygian  bonnet  topping  a  staff,  or  the  sphere 
surmounted  by  an  eagle  representing  the 
Heavpns.  As  the  Mithra  immolating  the  bull, 
so  also  the  other  scenes  in  which  this  hero 
appears  as  actor,  are  unquestionably  in  greater 
part  the  transpositions  of  uiotifs  popular  in  the 


MITHRAIC    ART 


225 


Hellenistic  epoch,  although  we  are  unable  in 
every  case  to  rediscover  the  original  which 
the  Roman  marble-cutter  imitated  or  the  ele- 
ments which  he  combined  in  his  composition. 
As   for   the   rest,   the   artistic  value   of   these 


Fig.   50. 

BIRTH    OF    ERICHTHONIOS. 

From  a  Greek  vase.     (Baumeister.) 

adaptations  is  generally  very  slight.  We  have 
only  to  compare  the  lifeless  group  of  Mithra 
issuing  from  the  rock  (Fig.  30)  with  the  ani- 
mated picture  of  the  birth  of  Erichthonios  as 
it  is  portrayed  on  Greek  vases  (see,  for  exam- 
ple, Fig.  50)  to  note  the  superior  artistic  effect 
which  the  ancient  Hellenic  ceramists  could 
produce  from  a  similar  theme.      The  poverty 


226  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

of  the  innovations  which  the  Mithraic  iconog- 
raphy introduced  contrasts  painfully  with  the 
importance  of  the  religious  movement  that  pro- 
voked them.  We  have,  in  this,  an  additional 
corroboration  of  the  fact  that  in  the  epoch  in 
which  the  Persian  Mysteries  spread  through- 
out the  empire,  the  ancient  sculpture  was 
doomed  beyond  recall.  Whereas,  during  the 
Hellenistic  period,  sculptors  were  still  able  to 
conceive  new  forms  felicitously  adapted  to  the 
character  of  the  Egyptian  divinities,  under  the 
empire,  on  the  other  hand,  the  majority  of 
the  Mazdean  gods,  despite  their  very  peculiar 
nature,  were  compelled,  whether  or  no,  to  take 
on  the  form  and  the  garb  of  the  denizens  of 
Olympus.  And  if  for  some  of  these  strange 
subjects  new  types  were  actually  invented, 
they  were  in  every  instance  distressingly  com- 
monplace. The  superabundant  wealth  in- 
herited from  the  ancient  generations  had 
enervated  the  generative  potencies  of  art; 
and,  accustomed  to  draw  from  these  rich 
stores,  art  had  grown  incapable  of  all  indi- 
vidual productivity. 

But  we  should  be  wrong  in  exacting  from 
the  adepts  of  Mithraism  something  which 
they  never  made  the  pretense  of  offering. 
The  religion  which  they  preached  was  not  a 
cult  of  beauty,  and  love  of  plastic  form  would 
doubtless  have  appeared  to  them  a  vain,  if 
not  a  condemnable,  taste.  Religious  emotion 
alone  was  of  consequence  in  their  eyes,  and  to 


MITHRAIC    ART  227 

awaken  it  they  addressed  themselves  mainly 
to  the  reason.  In  spite  of  the  many  appro- 
priations which  it  made  from  the  treasury  of 
types  created  by  Greek  sculptors,  Mithraic  art 
rested  at  heart  Asiatic,  like  the  Mysteries  of 
which  it  was  the  expression.  Its  predomina- 
ting idea  was  not  to  provoke  an  cesthetic  im- 
pression; it  aimed  not  to  fascinate,  but  to  tell 
its  mission  and  to  instruct, — faithful  in  this 
also  to  the  traditions  of  the  ancient  Orient. 
The  jumbled  mass  of  personages  and  groups 
which  are  presented  on  some  of  the  bas- 
reliefs,  the  host  of  attributes  with  which  it 
surcharged  the  eternal  Kronos,*  show  us  that 
a  new  ideal  was  born  with  the  new  religion. 
These  uncouth  and  unappealing  symbols,  the 
manifold  use  of  which  our  monuments  exhibit, 
did  not  allure  by  their  elegance  or  nobility; 
they  fascinated  the  mind  by  the  disquieting 
attractions  of  the  Unknown,  and  provoked  in 
souls  reverential  fear  for  an  august  mystery. 

Thus  is  explained  why  this  art,  extremely 
refined  despite  its  imperfections,  exercised  a 
lasting  influence.  It  was  united  to  Christian 
art  by  an  affinity  of  nature,  and  the  symbolism 
which  it  had  popularized  in  the  Occident  did 
not  perish  with  it.  Even  the  allegorical  fig- 
ures of  the  cosmic  cycle  which  the  devotees  of 
the  Persian  god  had  reproduced  in  great 
profusion  (for  nature  was  for  them  divine 
throughout)     were    adopted    by   Christianity, 

*  Cf.  p.  139,   Fig.  35,  and  p.  105  et  seq. 


228  THE    MYSTERIES    OF    MITHRA 

although  in  essence  they  were  diametrically 
opposed  to  its  spirit.  So  with  the  images  of 
the  Heavens,  the  Earth,  and  the  Ocean,  of  the 
Sun,  the  Moon,  and  the  Planets,  and  of  the 
signs  of  the  Zodiac,  of  the  Winds,  the  Seasons, 
and  the  Elements,  so  frequent  on  the  Chris- 
tian sarcophagi,  the  mosaics,  and  miniatures. 
The  mediocre  compositions  which  the  ar- 
tists had  conceived  to  represent  the  episodes 
of  the  legend  of  Mithra  appeared  also  worthy 
of  imitation  to  the  Christian  ages,  which  were 
even  more  powerless  than  their  predecessors 
to  shake  off  the  traditions  of  the  workshops. 
When,  after  the  triumph  of  the  Church,  Chris- 
tian sculptors  were  confronted  with  subjects 
hitherto  unattempted,  and  found  themselves 
under  the  embarrassing  obligations  of  depict- 
ing on  stone  the  personages  and  stories  of  the 
Bible,  they  were  happy  in  the  opportunity  of 
being  able  to  draw  inspiration  from  the  por- 
trayals which  the  Persian  M3^steries  had  popu- 
larized. A  few  alterations  in  costume  and 
attitude  transformed  a  pagan  scene  into  a 
Christian  picture.  Mithra  discharging  his 
arrows  against  the  rock  became  Moses  causing 
the  waters  of  the  mountain  of  Horeb  to  gush 
forth;  the  Sun,  raising  his  ally  out  of  the 
Ocean,  served  to  express  the  ascension  of 
Elijah  in  the  chariot  of  fire;  and  to  the  time 
of  the  Middle  Ages  the  type  of  the  taurocto- 
nous  god  was  perpetuated  in  the  images  of 
Samson  rending  the  lion. 


AGRI 
DECU  MATES. 


INDEX 


Absolutism,  theory  of,  go,  103. 

Abstinence,  160. 

Adam-Klissi,  43. 

Adige,  river,  73. 

Adriatic,   Mithraism  along   the 

coasts  of  the,  67. 
^on,  105  et  seq.    (See  Kronos.) 
Agri  Decumates,  52,  83,  199. 
Ahriman,   7,   112,   137.  140;  the 
destruction  of   the  world  by, 
146. 
Ahura-Mazda,  5  et  seq.,  20,  27, 

94,  113,  222. 
Alexander  the  Great,  12,  20,  192. 
Alexandria,  92. 
Alps,    Mithraism    in  defiles    of 

the,  72. 
Amshaspands,  2,  5. 
Anahita,    8  et  seq.,   10,   20,  179 

et  seq. 
Anaitis,  112. 
Anangke,  iii. 
Anauni,  tribe  of  the,  206. 
Animal  disguises,  153- 
Animals  and  stars,  122. 
Antiochus  of   Commagene,    13, 

14,  26,  27,  95. 
Apathy,  stoic,   161. 
Apotheosis  of  the  emperors,  90 

et  seq. 
Apuleius,  164. 
Apulum,  45,  139. 
Aquileia,    Mithraism    in,    67 

seq.,  73,  213. 
Aquincum,  46. 


et 


Arcana,  the  secrecy  of  the,  172. 
Archer,   the    divine,    138,     197, 

228. 
Arete,  112. 
Aristocracy  and  Mithraism,  the 

Roman,  81  et  seq.,  205. 
Ark,   13S. 

Armenia,  Mithraism  in,  16. 
Armenians,  religion  of  the,  16. 
Army,   the  principal    agent  of 
the  diffusion  of  the  Mithraic 
religion,  40  et  seq. 
Arshtat,  5. 
Artagnes,   iii. 
Artaxerxes,  8,  9. 
Artemis  Tauropolos,  20. 
Art,    Mithraic,  24,  209  et  seq. ; 
intricacy  of,   221 ;  symbolism 
of,     227 ;     its     influence     on 
Christian      sculpture,      196; 
Christianity    adopts    symbols 
of,  228. 
Art  of  the  empire,   provincial, 

219. 
Ascension,  Mithraic,  194. 
Asceticism,  141. 
Asha,  112. 
Ashi-Vaiiuhi,  5. 

Asia  Minor,  Mithraism  in,  11  et 
seq.;   resists   the    civilization 
of  Rome,  35. 
Asia  Propria,  79 
Asia,    religions     of,     and     the 

Caesars,   91. 
Astarte  at  Rome,  34. 
Astrolatry,  10. 


229 


230 


INDEX 


Astrologers,  78,  85. 
Astrology,  119,  125,  207. 
Atar,  112. 
Athena  Nike,  210. 
Atlas,  123. 

Attis,  87,  105,  179,  198. 
Aurelian,  88,  103,  185,  199. 
Aurelius,  Marcus,  87. 
Austerities,  160. 
Avesta,  the,  i  et  seq. 

B 

Ba'al,  42. 

Baal  of  Emesa,  185. 

Babylon,   Mithraism  in,  9,    10, 

119. 
Bacchus,  112. 
Bactrian  coins,   19. 
Banquets,  sacred,    173. 
Baptism,  6,  157,  190,  173. 
Baresman,  6,  26. 
Basil,  St.,  28. 
Bavay,  56. 
Bear,  title  of,  153. 
Bee,  lion  and,  185. 
Bel,  10. 
Belgium,  early  school  of  sculjv 

ture  of,  220. 
Bellona,  35,  87. 
Bell,  sounding  of  a,  166. 
Bethlehem,  195. 
Bithynia,  79. 
Blood,  baptism  of,  181. 
Bologna,   151. 
Bonn,  52. 

Borghesi  bas-relief,  21. 
Boulogne,  56. 
Bread  and  water,  consecrated, 

15S. 
Brenner  pass,  73. 
Britain,    Mithraism    in,     57    et 

seq.,  79. 


Brotherhoods,  Mithraic,  organi- 
zation of,  168. 

Brothers,  190. 

Brunn,  214. 

Bull,  capture  of  the  wild,  132, 
135  et  seq.,  210;  immolation 
of  the  mythical,  182;  the  Evil 
Spirit  and  the,  137  ;  the  divine, 
146,  194. 

Bundahish,   7. 

Burial  associations,  86. 


Caerleon,   57. 

Caesarism,  democratic  fiction 
of,  90. 

Caesars,  intimate  alliance  of, 
with  the  Sun,  98  et  seq. ; 
religions  of  Asia  and  the,  qi ; 
the  successive  Avatars  of 
Helios  (the  Sun),  100; 
Mithraism  favored  the  pre- 
tensions of  the,  10 1. 

Caesar,  the  genius  of,  93. 

Calabria,  71. 

Caligula,  93. 

Capitol,  bas-relief  of,  81. 

Cappadocia,  Magi  and  Mith- 
raism in,  26,  28,  42,  43,  46, 
76. 

Carnuntum,  38,  46,  47  et  seq., 
83,  88,  89,    163,   178,  200. 

Catechumens,  Christian,  155. 

Catharsis,  141. 

Cause,  the  suprasensible,  118. 

Cauit,  129. 

Cautopati,   129. 

Caves,  consecrated  to  the  gods, 
30. 

Celibacy,  165. 

Celsus,  82. 

Cemetery,  Mithraic,  171. 


INDEX 


231 


Centurions,  a  microcosm  of  the 
empire,  40,  41. 

Ceramists,  Hellenic,  225. 

Ceremonial,  the  occult,  162  et 
seq. 

Chaldagans,  theology  of  the,  10; 
as  astrologers,  78,  85;  theo- 
ries, influence  of  their,  1 19. 

Chester,  57. 

Chosroes,  vi. 

Christ,  193,  195. 

Christianity,  battle  between 
idolatry  and,  iii  et  seq. ; 
struggle  between  Mithraism 
and,  188  et  seq. ;  resemblances 
between  Mithraism  and,  193  ; 
differences  between  Mithra- 
ism and,  197;  adopts  symbols 
of  Mithraic  art,  228, 

Christians,  persecutions  of,  200. 

Christmas,  167,  igi,   196,  202. 

Chrysostomos,  Dion,  25. 

Church  ornaments  during  the 
days  of  paganism,  218. 

Cilicia,  pirates  of,  31,  35,  37,  42. 

Clergy,  Mithraic,  150  et  seq., 
165. 

Cologne,   52. 

Coloring  of  Mithraic  statues, 
219. 

Colt,  title  of,  153. 

Commagene,  41,  43,  178. 

Commandments  of  Mithraism, 
140. 

Commerce,  international,  79. 

Commodus,  38,  83,  87,  97,  212. 

Communion,  the  Mithraic,  158 
et  seq.,  194. 

Compromise,  Mithraic  policy  of, 
19S. 

Conflagration,  13S. 

Congregations,  Mithraic,  169. 


Constantine,  200. 
Constantius,  201. 
Constellations,  worship  of  the 

Planets  and  the,  148. 
Continence,  141. 
Conventicles,  the  Mithraic,  171. 
Corbulo,  47. 

Creator,  Mithra  the,  137. 
Crown,  the,  156. 
Ctesias,  9. 
Cybele,  17,  30,  87,  112,  179. 

D 

Dacia,  Mithraism  in,  44  et  seq., 

139-  199- 

Dadophori,  57.  (See  Torch- 
bearers.') 

Dalmatia,  40,  76. 

Danube,  44,  51, 

Darkness,  the  Spirit  of,  and  his 
pestilential  scourges,  137. 

Day  and  night,  struggle  be- 
tween, 4. 

Dead,  resurrection  of  the,  191. 

Dea  Syria  at  Rome,  35. 

Deities,  sidereal,  120;  septuple 
division  of  the,  155. 

Deliverance,  143. 

Deluge,  138. 

Despotism,  90,  91  et  seq 

Destiny,  95,  109,  no,  124. 

Devotees,   Mithraic,  150  et  seq. 

Diadochi,  Mithraism  and  the, 
II  et  seq. 

Diana,  ri2. 

Diocletian,  vi,  48,  89,  98, 
200. 

Dioscuri,  the,  123  et  seq. 

Disc,  the  radiant,  100. 

Divine  flame,  26. 

Dog  of  Mithra,  the,  135,  137. 

Dolichemmi,  178. 


232 


INDEX 


Dolichenus,     Jupiter,     36,     48, 

173,  190. 
Dormagen,  52. 
Drave,  Mithraism  in  valley  of 

the,  73. 
Drvaspa,  112. 
Dualism,  advantages  of,  141. 

E 

Earth,  mother,  115. 

Ecliptic,  107. 

Egypt,  a  theocratic  govern- 
ment, 91. 

Eisack,  73. 

Elements,  the  four,  116  et  seq. , 
148. 

Elijah,  228. 

Emperors,  titles  of,  97 ;  wor- 
ship of  the,  90  et  seq.,  184. 

Equinoxes,  167. 

Erichthonios,  birth  of,  225. 

Eternity,  leontocephalous  god 
of,  the  most  original  creation 
of  Mithraic  art,  224. 

Etruria,  67,  72. 

Eubulus,  82. 

Eugenius,  205. 

Europe,  in  danger  of  being 
Asiaticized,  vi. 

Eutropius,  44. 

Evil  Spirit  and  the  Bull,  the, 
137- 

F 

Fatalism,  97,  147. 

Fatality,  95,  109;  belief  in,  124. 

Fates,  III. 

Father,  degree  of,  152  et  seq. 

Father  of  the  Fathers,  165,  177. 

Festivals,  Mithraic,  167. 

Fire,  114;  the  inextinguishable, 
99. 

Flavianus,  Nicomachus,  205. 


Fleet  at  Ravenna,  46. 
Flood,   191.     (See  Deluge.) 
Foriiina  regi'a,  97. 
Fortune,  94  et  seq.,  102,  iii. 
Four  Crowned  Ones,  passion  of 

the,  218. 
France,  Mithraism  in,  69. 
Freemasonry,   162. 
Friedberg,  52. 
Friedlander,  217. 
Future  life,  144. 

G 

Galatia,  79. 

Galerius,  89,  200. 

Gathas,   150. 

Gaul,  Mithraism  in,  69  et  seq. , 

79. 

Generative  Rock,  the,  131  et 
seq.,  194. 

Geneva,  56,  70. 

Genius  of  Caesar,  the,  93. 

George  the  patriarch,  202. 

Germanics,  Mithraism  in  the 
two,  50  et  seq.,  52  et  seq.,  78. 

Gigantomachy,  112,   113,  127. 

Gilding,  220. 

Glory,  94  et  seq. 

God,  1S7. 

God,  the  passion  of  the,  192. 

Gods,  Iranian,  worshipped  un- 
der Greek  and  Latin  names, 

175- 

Good  and  evil,  the  struggle  be- 
tween the  principles  of,   146. 

Good,  principle  of,  148. 

Gordianus  III.,  18,  32. 

Gracchus,  the  prefect,  203. 

Grace  (halo),  94  et  seq.;  the 
Mithraic  spirit  of,  147. 

Gratian,  205. 

Greeks  and  Persians,  iii. 


INDEX 


233 


H 

Hadrian,  40,  46;  wall  of,  57. 
Haoma,  6,  112,  131,  158. 
Heaven,  109,  191,  197. 
Heavens,  the,  121,  13S. 
Heddernheim,    53  et  seq.,  117, 
Heidelberg,  55. 
Helbig,  214. 
Heliogabalus,  185. 
Heliolatry,  184  et  seq.,  200. 
Helios,  22,  138,  222. 
Hell,  191,  206. 

Hellenism,  Iranism  and,  20. 
Heracles,  C.  Valerius,  105. 
Hercules,  20,   11 1,  127,  222. 
Hierarchy,  the,  165. 
Holy  water,  157. 
Honey,  157. 
Hooerkes,   19. 
Horeb,  rock  of,  197. 
Horses,  the  four,  116  et  seq. 
Human  couple,  the  first,  137. 
Hvareno,  94  et  seq.,  102. 

I 

Iconography,  Mithraic,  226. 
Idolatry,  destruction  of,  201, 
Imagery,  religious,  216. 
Immortalit}',   143. 
Initiates,  the  Mithraic,  155. 
Initiation,  6;  seven  degrees  of, 

152 ;  cruelty  of  the  ceremonies 

of,  161. 
Invictiis,  the  epithet,  98. 
Invincible,    the  epithet,    97    et 

seq.,   143. 
Iranism  and  Hellenism,  20. 
Iran,  naturalism  of,  iig. 
Ishtar,  10. 
Isis,     Mysteries     of,     178;     at 

Rome,  34. 


Italy,  depopulated,  64;  Mithra- 
ism  in,  38,  70  et  seq. 

J 

Janes,  S.   H.,  176. 

Jerome,  St.,  152. 

Jerusalem,  capture  of,  37. 

Jesus,  life  of,  194. 

Jewish  community  trajis  Tibe- 

rim,  37. 
Journey,  the,  135. 
Judaism,  iv. 
Julian  the  Apostate,  89,  201  et 

seq. 
Juno,  III. 
Jupiter,  no,  136. 
Jupiter-Ormazd,  140,  146. 

K 

Kanerkes,  19. 
Klagenfurt,  113. 
Kronos,    105   et   seq.,    153,    162, 
222,  223,  227. 

L 

Lambasse,  58. 

Lampridius,  78,  83. 

Last  Supper,  the,  138. 

Latin    world,    diflfusion   of  the 

Mithraic  religion  in  the,  36. 
Legio  II.  adjiitrix,  46. 
Legion,  fifteenth,  47  et  seq. 
Leontocephalous  Kronos.     (See 

Kro7ios.') 
Licinius,  89. 
Life,  a  battle,  140;  beyond  the 

tomb,   148. 
Lion  and  bee,  185. 
Lion,  degree  of,  152. 
Lion-headed       Kronos.        (See 

Kronos. ) 
Liturgy  Mazdean  and  Mithraic, 

6,  150  et  seq. 


234 


INDEX 


Livianus,  s]ave  of  T.  Claudius, 

38. 
Logos,  the,  140,   191. 
London,  57,  217. 
Lord's    Supper,   the,    138.     158, 

191. 
Love  feasts,  160. 
Lucania,  71. 
Lucian,  27,  82,  220. 
Luna,  112.     (See  Moon.) 
Lyons,  60,  69. 

.M 

MS,,  30,  180. 

Macrobius,  1S7. 

Magician,  the  word,  126. 

Magi,  the  official  Persian  clergy, 
9;  in  Asia  Minor,  11  et  seq., 
20;  propaganda  of,  15  ;  adora- 
tion of  the,  195. 

Magus,  the  title,  126. 

Malachi,  193. 

Manichaeans,  the,  165. 

Manichseism,  v,  207. 

Man,  origin  and  destiny  of,  120. 

Mars,  112. 

Martyrs,  Oriental,   175. 

Masks,  sacred,  153. 

Mater,  Magna,  at  Rome,  19. 
34,  67;  Mithraism  associated 
with,  86  et  seq.,  179  et  seq. 
{^0,^  Mother,  Great.) 

Mauls,  73. 

Maximus  of  Ephesus,  202,  203. 

Mayence,  52. 

Mazdaism,  ritual  forms  of,  28; 
priests  of,  29;  its  influence 
on  Occidental  culture,  iv;  a 
congeries  of  traditions,  10;  in 
Italy,  15;  in  Armenia,  16. 
(See  Mithraism.) 

Mediator,  140,  191. 


Memphis,  Mithra  at,  33. 

Men,  Mithra  and,  17. 

Merchants    disseminate     Mith- 
raism, 78. 

Mercury,  112. 

Metempsychosis,  153. 

Metroon,  179,  182. 

Middle  Zone,   127. 

Mihragan,  the,  9. 

Milan,  72. 

Minerva,  112,  181. 

Missal,  a  Mithraic,  152. 

Mithra-Ahura,  2,  6. 

Mithra- Anahita,  17. 

Mithra-Men,  17. 

Mithra,  the  god  of  light,  2  et 
seq.,  127  et  seq.  ;  as  god  of 
hosts  and  victory,  4,  8,  12; 
doctrine  of  redemption  by,  5 ; 
a  yazata,  5  et  seq. ;  in  the 
calendar,  8,  27 ;  Shamash 
and,  10;  King  Antiochus  and, 
14 ;  typical  representations  of, 
21  et  seq. ;  the  tauroctonous, 
21  et  seq.,  210,  216;  legends 
and  deeds  of,  30,  127  etseq., 
133 ;  the  invincible  Sun  iden- 
tified with,  95,  121,  132;  the 
mediator,  127  et  seq. ;  the 
triple,  129;  born  from  the 
rock,  130  et  seq.  ;  his  com- 
bat with  the  bull,  132,  135  et 
seq.,  210;  his  dog,  135,  137; 
the  creator,  137,  140;  the 
guide  to  heaven,  145  ;  causing 
the  living  waters  to  leap 
forth,  197,  228. 
Mithradates,    the    name.     (See 

Mithridates.) 
INIithricums,  ruins  of,  203. 
Mithraism,  the  origins  of,  i  et 
seq.,  30 ;  a  composite  religion, 


INDEX 


235 


31 ;  analysis  of  the  constituent 
elements  of,  30;  Semitic 
theories  in,  10;  religious  sur- 
vivals in,  30;  struggle  be- 
tween Christianity  and,  v, 
188  et  seq. ;  resemblances  be- 
tween Christianity  and,  193 ; 
differences  between  Christi- 
anity and,  197;  dissemination 
of,  in  the  Roman  Empire,  33 
et  seq. ;  army  principal  agent 
of  diffusion  of,  40  et  seq.,  60, 
77,  78;  disseminated  by 
Syrian  merchants  and  slaves, 
61  et  seq.,  63  et  seq.,  69,  74 
et  seq.,  78;  imperial  officers 
disseminated,  74  et  seq. ;  the 
Roman  aristocracy  and,  81 
et  seq.,  205;  the  imperial 
power  of  Rome  and,  85  et 
seq. ;  reasons  the  Roman 
Empire  supported  it,  88  et 
seq.;  despotism  and,  91  et 
seq. ;  favored  the  pretensions 
of  the  Caesars,  loi ;  dogmatol- 
ogy  of,  tended  to  lift  princes 
above  the  level  of  human- 
kind, 102;  at  its  apogee,  15,  84 
etseq.,  88etseq.,  177,  199;  the 
doctrines  of,  104  et  seq. ;  its 
theology,  105  et  seq.  ;  astrol- 
ogy and,  125;  its  liturg}', 
clergy  and  devotees,  150  et 
seq, ;  the  religions  of  the 
empire  and,  175  et  seq.; 
importance  of  its  history, 
vi;  philosophy  and,  25;  the 
Stoic  philosophy  and,  25; 
excluded  from  the  Hellenic 
world,  33 ;  Roman  tolerance 
of,  85 ;  associated  with  the 
religion  of  the  Magna  Mater 


(Great  Mother),  86  et  seq. ; 
legal  status  of,  86;  sacred 
poetry  of,  126 ;  command- 
ments of,  140;  a  religion  of 
.soldiers,  142;  satisfied  the 
hearts  of  the  simple-minded, 
148  ;  allurements  of,  149 ;  con- 
forms religion  to  ancient 
science,  149;  offers  oppor- 
tunities for  prayer  and  mo- 
tives for  veneration,  149 ;  the 
religious  expression  of  the 
physics  and  astronomy  of 
the  Roman  world,  149 ;  ad- 
mission to,  156;  stupendous 
illusions  of,  173;  women  and, 
173;  its  priests,  175  ;  its  policy 
of  compromise,  198;  its  tem- 
ples sacked,  199,  203;  down- 
fall of,  203  et  seq.  ;  its  art, 
sculpture,  etc.,  209  et  seq.; 
monuments  of,  43  et  seq. ,  209 
et  seq. ;  not  a  cult  of  beauty, 
226. 

Mithrakana,  the,  9,  167. 

Mithridates,  13. 

Mithridates  Eupator,  31. 

Mitra-Varuna,  2. 

Moesia,    Mithraism    in,   40,   43, 

74- 
Monachism,  Mithraic,  165. 
INIonarchical    power,     Mazdean 

ideas  concerning,  95. 
Monarchs,   majesty  of,    sacred, 

93. 
Monotheism,  1S7,  188. 
Moon,  worship  of  the,  119. 
Mosaicists,  Christian,  222. 
Moses,  197,  228. 
Mothers,  order  of,  179. 
Mother,   the    Great,    19.      (See 

Mater,  Magna.) 


236 


INDEX 


Mysteries,  the  term,  29. 
Myths,  origin  of,  1S7. 

N 

Nabarze,  142,  143,  150. 

Nai/ia,  Nama  Sebesio,   151. 

Names,  theophorous  or  god- 
bearing,  8,  34. 

Narbonne,  69. 

Natalis  invicti.  (See  Christ- 
mas.^ 

Nativity,  the,  196. 

NaturaHsm  of  Iran,  119. 

Necessity,  126. 

Necromancy,  125. 

Neo-Platonism,  1S4. 

Neo-Pythagorism,   184. 

Neptune,  iii,  115. 

Nero,  85,  93. 

Nersse,  38,  71. 

Neuenheim,  55. 

Neuwied,  52. 

Nike,  112. 

Noricum,  Mithraism  in,  49,  73, 

75,  II3. 
Numidia,  Mithraism  in,  59. 

O 

Oblations  of  milk,  oil,  and 
honey,  26. 

Occult,  degree  of,  152. 

Ocean,  109,  115. 

Officers,  imperial,  disseminate 
Mithraism,  74  et  seq. 

Oglia,  river,  72. 

Oneiromancy,  125. 

Orestes,  20. 

Oriental,  cults,  persecutions  of 
the,  85;  genius,  triumphs 
over  the  Roman  mind,  90; 
traffic,  extension  of,  and 
spread  of  Mithraism,  69,  70. 

Ormazd,  v,  7,  iii. 


Osrhoene,  36. 

Osterburken,  51,  220. 

Ostia,  38,   66,  6S,   105,   179,  210, 

212. 
Ox,  title  of,   153. 

P 

Pallas,  82. 

Pannonia,   Mithraism  in,  46  et 

seq.,  74,  199;  quarries  of.  218. 
Pantheism,  149;  solar,  iSS. 
Pantheon,  Mithraic,   109. 
Paradise,  191. 
Parendi,  5. 

Parseeism,  development  of,  15. 
Parthians,  42,  47,  64. 
Pergamon,    12 ;    School  of,    24, 

192,  210. 
Persian,  degree  of,  152. 
Persians  and  Greeks,  iii. 
Persians,    their    apotheosis    of 

their  rulers,  93. 
Petronell,   163. 
Pharaohs,   incarnations  of   the 

great  day-star,  92. 
Philippus,  88. 

Philosophical  conceptions,   148. 
Philosophy  and  Mithraism,  25. 
Phrygian  cap,  131. 
Piraeus,  33. 
Planets,    222;     deified,    120    et 

seq. ;  and  the  Constellations, 

worship  of  the,  148. 
Plutarch,  7,  36,  37,  96. 
Pluto,  112. 
Pompey,  37. 
Pontiff,  the  chief,    165. 
Pontus,  42. 
Porphyry,  155,  158. 
Pozzuoli,  64. 
Pra;textatus,   187. 
Priesthood,  Mazdean,  29. 
Priestsof  Mithra,  175  ;  slain,  205. 


INDEX 


237 


Pronaos,  170. 
Ptolemies,  93. 
Ptolemy,  10. 
Purification,  181. 
Purity,  141. 
Puster-Thal,  73. 

Q 

Quadriga,   116,  118,  138. 

R 
Ra,  92. 

Radiate  crown,  99. 

Rashnu,  5. 

Raven,  degree  of,  152  et  seq. 

Ravenna,  fleet  at,  46. 

Redeemer,  the,  193,  195. 

Redemption,   143. 

Resurrection  of  the  flesh,  146, 
171,   191,  206. 

Revelation,  191. 

Reville,  Jean,   17. 

Rhsetia,  73. 

Rhone,  69  et  seq. 

Ritual  of  Mazdaism,  28. 

Rock,  Mithra  born  from  the, 
130  et  seq.  ;  of  generation, 
194. 

Roman  aristocracy,  Mithra  and, 
81  et  seq. 

Roman  Emperors  and  the- 
ocracy, 90. 

Roman  tolerance  of  Mithraism, 

85. 
Rome,  210,  217;  Mithraism  at, 

79    et    seq. ;     the   capital  of 

paganism,  205. 
Runner  of  the  Sun,  degree   of, 

152  et  seq. 


Sabazius-Anaitis,  17. 
Sacraments,  156,  157,  206. 


Sacred  bath,  180. 
Sacrifice,  the,  137,  166. 
Sseculum.     (See  Kronos.) 
Samson,  22S. 

Sarmizegetusa,  45,  142,  216. 
Sarrebourg,  56,  204. 
Sassanian  kings,  100. 
Saturn,    Mithraic,    105    et  seq. 

(See  Kronos.) 
Scarbantia,  49. 
Schneider,  Von,  214. 
Schwarzerden,  56. 
Scorpion,  sign  of  the,  129. 
Scotland,  43. 
Sculpture,    Mithraic,    196,   215; 

ancient,  226. 
Seasons,  the,  115,   121,  222. 
Sebesio,  Nam  a,  Nama,  151. 
Seleucidae,  the,  95. 
Semitic  theories  in  Mithraism, 

10. 
Serapis  at  Rome,  34. 
Services,  Mithraic,  162. 
Seven  spheres,  the,  144. 
Seven,  the  number,  120  et  seq., 

154- 
Severus,   Alexander,  18,  61,  78, 

88. 
Shahrivar,  112. 

Shamash,  10,  20,  121,  127,  128. 
Shepherds,  worship  of  the,  132, 

194. 

Sicily,  Mithraism  in,  68. 

Sidereal  influences,  206. 

Silvanus,  66,  112,   136,   137. 

Sisters,  order  of,  179. 

Skeleton,  Chained,  204. 

Slaves,  Asiatic,  disseminated 
Mithraism  and  other  Oriental 
cults,  63  et  seq.,  70,  71,  78. 

Smyrna,  214. 

Societies,  Mithraic,  170. 


2^8 


INDEX 


Sodalicia,  i6S,  171. 

Solar,  divinities,  99,  121 ;  pan- 
theism, 188. 

Soldier,  degree  of ,  152;  Roman, 
his  religion,  42  et  seq. 

Soldiers,  the  principal  agent  of 
the  diffusion  of  the  Mithraic 
religion,  40  et  seq.,  78. 

Sol  invictus,  cult  of  the,  89. 

Sol  the  sun-god,  186. 

Soul,  immortality  of,   143,   191. 

Spain,  Mithraism  in,  59,  69,  79. 

Spelcsa,  161. 

Spetita-Armaiti,  iii. 

Sraosha,  5. 

Stars,  worship  of,  119;  animals 
and,  122. 

Statius,  37. 

Stoic  philosophy,  Mithraism  and 
the,  25,  184. 

Stone-hewing  industry  of  an- 
tiquity, 217. 

Strabo,  11,  26. 

Strassburg,  52. 

Sunday,  191. 

Sun,  worship  of  the,  118,  183  et 
seq. ;  the  invincible,  identi- 
fied with  Mithra,  95,  121; 
Mithra  and  the,  132;  intimate 
alliance  of  the  Caesars  with 
the,  98  et  seq.  ;  consubstan- 
tiality  of  the  emperor  with, 
loi ;  birth  of  the,  167;  of 
justice,  193;  custom  of  invok- 
ing the,  195 ;  also  128,  138, 
148,  201. 

Symbolism,    astronomical,   130. 

Syncretism,  religious,  10-22,  187. 

Syrian  merchants  disseminated 
]\Iithraism,  61  et  seq. 

Syrians,  character  and  occupa- 
tions of,  62  et  seq. 


Tarsus,  31,  32. 
Taurobolium,  86,  180. 
Tauroctonous,   or    bull-slaying, 

Mithra,  the,  21  et  seq. 
Taurus,  constellation  of,  129. 
Temples  sacked,  ]\Iithraic,  199, 

203. 
Tertullian,  157,  165,  188. 
Themis,  iii. 
Theocracy,    Roman     emperors 

and,  90. 
Theodosius,  205. 
Theologies,  of  the  Orient  and 

the   philosophies    of    Greece, 

14;  the  Mithraic,  147. 
Theophorous,    or    god-bearing, 

names,  8,  34. 
Thiasi,  155. 
Time,   148,  153;  boundless,   105 

et     seq.;      infinite,    112,    121. 

(See  Kronos.) 
Titus,  47,  64. 
Torch-bearers,     57,    68,    128    et 

seq.,  211  et  seq. 
Toronto  Mithra,  the,  176. 
Trajan,  44,  48,  64. 
Trapezus,  coins  of,  18. 
Trent,  73. 
Treves,  56. 
Trials,    160. 

Trinity,  v,   176;    Mithraic,   iii. 
Triple  Mithra,  the,  129. 
Twigs,    sacred    {baresmaii),   6, 

26. 
Tyche,  94  et  seq. 


Unclion,   157. 


U 


V 


Vanaiiiiti,  112. 
Vedas,  i  et  seq. 


INDEX 


239 


Vendidad,  the,  26. 

Venus,  112,  181. 

Venusia,  71. 

Verethraghna,  5,  20,  127,  222. 

Vespasian,  46,  47,  77. 

Veterans    disseminate  Mithra- 

ism,  77. 
Vienna,  49. 
Villa  Albani,  212. 
Virunum,   50,   73,  113,   199,  218. 
Vulcan,  112,  114. 

W 
Water,  114. 
West,  7. 

Winds,  the,  197,  222,  223. 
Witchcraft,  125. 
Women  in  Mithraism,  173. 


World,    origin  and    destiny    of 
the,  109,  120,  140. 


Yazatas,  5  et  seq.,  175 
York,   57. 


Zeno,  25. 

Zervan,  105  et  seq.,  125.     (See 

Kroiios. ) 
Zeus,    III,    222;    Ahura-Mazda 

and,  20. 
Zodiac,  signs  of  the,  109,  121  et 

seq.,  153,  223. 
Zoroaster,  152. 
Zoroastrianism,     2    et    seq.,   8, 

165.     (See  Mii/iratsin.) 


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The  First  Philosopher.  Interpretation  and  Translation  of  a 
Fragment  of  Egyptian  Hieroglyphic  Writing  of  the  Sixteenth 
Century  Before  Christ,  Expounding  the  System  of  Thought  of 
a  Memphite  Priest  that  Foreshadows  the  Philosophy  of  Greece. 
By  James  H.  Breasted,  Professor  in  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago.     The  I\Ionist,  April,  1902.     Price,  50  Cents  (2s.  6d.). 

Egyptian  Religious  Conceptions.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  A  Series 
of  Articles  to  be  Published  in  The  Open  Court. 

Babylonian  and  Hebrew  Views  of  Man's  Fate  After  Death. 
By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  The  Open  Court,  Vol.  XV..  No.  6.  10 
cents  (6d.). 

The  Fairy-Tale  Element  in  the  Bible.  Babylonian  Cosmogony. 
The  Cuneiform  Tablets  of  the  Marduk  Myth.  Yahveh's  Fight 
With  the  Dragon.  The  Two  Hebrew  Creation  Stories.  Del- 
uge Legends.  Worship  of  the  Queen  of  Heaven.  Song  of 
the  Well.  Etc.,  Etc.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  The  Monist  for 
April  and  July,  1901  Price,  50  cents  (2s.  6d.)  each.  These 
two  numbers  also  contain  .articles  on  the  "Resurrection  of 
Christ,"  by  the  Rev.  William  Weber  ;  on  the  "  Earliest  Chap- 
ter of  History  (Babylonia  and  Assyria),"  by  Prof .  James  A. 
Craig  ;  and  on  the  "  Authenticity  of  the  Tao  Teh  King,"  by 
Dr.  Paul  Carus. 

The  Two  Accounts  of  Hagar.  By  Prof.  Hermann  Gunkel,  Uni- 
versity of  Berlin.     7'/!f  yI/o«is/,  Vol.  X.,  No   3.     5oc(2s.  6d.). 

The  Cross  and  Its  Significance.  Also  Essays  on  :  (i)  The  Cross 
in  Central  America  ;  (2)  The  Cross  Among  the  North  Amer- 
ican Indians  ;  (3)  Plato  and  the  Cross ;  {4)  The  Cross  of  Gol- 
gotha ;  (5)  Staurolatry,  or  The  History  of  Cross  Worship  ; 
and  (6)  The  Crucifix.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  The  Open  Court, 
Vol.  XIII.,  Nos.  3,  4,  5,  6,  8,  9,  and  11.     10  cents  (6d.)  each. 

Jew  and  Gentile  in  Early  Christianity.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus. 
The  Momst,  Vol.  IX.,  No.  2.     50  cents  (2s.  6d.). 

The  Agrapha  ;  or  Unrecorded  Sayings  of  Jesus  Christ.  By 
the  Rev.  Bernard  Pick,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D.  The  Open  Court,  Vol. 
XL,  No.  g.     10  cents  (6d.). 

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The  Religio-Historical  Interpretation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  A  Study  of  Christianity  as  a  Syncretic  Religion. 
By  Prof.  Hermann  Gunkel,  of  the  University  of  Berlin.  The 
Monist,  Vol.  XIII.,  No.  3.     50  cents  (2s.  6d,). 

Evolution  of  Angels  and  Demons  in  Christian  Theology.  By 
R.  Bruce  Boswell,  M.  A.,  Essex,  England.  The  Open  Court, 
Vol.  XIV.,  No.  8.     10  cents  (6d.). 

Gospel  Parallels  from  Pali  Texts.  By  Albert  J.  Edmunds, 
Philadelphia.  The  Open  Court,  Vol.  XIV.,  Nos.  2,  4,  and  6; 
Vol.  XV.,  No.  I.     40  cents  (2s.). 

Certain  Aspects  of  the  Eleusinian  Problem.  By  the  Rev. 
Charles  James  Wood,  St.  John's  Rectory,  York,  Penn.  The 
Open  Court,  Vol.  XIV.,  Nos.  10  and  11.     20  cents  (is.). 

Greek  Religion  and  Mythology.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  The 
Open  Court,  Vol.  XIV.,  Nos.  g,  10,  11,  and  12.  Vol.  XV., 
No.  I.  50  cents  (2s.  6d.).  These  numbers  are  especially  val- 
uable, containing  over  200  fine  illustrations  of  mythological 
subjects  from  the  best  classical  sources. 

Pagan  Elements  of  Christianity  ;  and  the  Significance  of 
Jesus.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  The  Monist,  Vol.  XII.,  No.  3. 
50  cents  (2s.  6d.). 

Theology  as  a  Science.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  The  Monist,  Vol. 
XII.,  No.  4,  and  Vol.  XIII.,  No.  i.  50  cents  (2s.  6d.)each. 
These  two  numbers  also  contain  articles  on  "The  Education 
of  Children,"  by  Dr.  C.  H.  Cornill,  and  "  The  Cosmology  of 
the  Sumerians,"  by  Dr.  Hugo  Radau,  besides  many  other 
valuable  articles  on  psychology  and  the  theory  and  history  of 
science. 

Apollonius  of  Tyana  ;  A  Complete  Sketch  of  His  Life  and 
Career  After  the  Original  Sources.  By  T.  Whittaker,  Lon- 
don.     The  Monist,  Vol.  XIII.,  No.  2.     50  cents  (2s.  6d.). 

The  Greek  Mysteries,  a  Preparation  for  Christianity.  By 
Dr.  Paul  Carus.  The  Monist,  Vol.  XI.,  No.  i.  50  cents 
(2s.  6d.). 

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